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!
Sarah, the consensus of comments seems to be negative and my family is considering canceling reservations we have already made for June 2022. Sarah, in your opinion, what is better for Disney Guests, the discontinued FAST PASS or the GENIE PLUS? I am not talking about the $15 a day per person. I just want your own comparison between the two. PLEASE
I am afraid that there are going to be more fight breakouts such as happened this week at the Land Pavilion. Scary, too much tension at this time of tge year on top of a system that doesn’t work.
Just returned from Thanksgiving week at WDW. We have been going to Disney yearly for the past 15 years. We stay on property and have always enjoyed the perks of a family vacation that could easily be planned in advance with utilization of technology to enhance the on-site experience. I am tech savvy and had a multitude of MyDisney Experience technology issues this past week (park ticket linking etc.) that I have never experienced before. The genie and genie+ system are not intuitive apps, in my opinion, so it took some getting used to the multiple navigation steps. After experiencing long lines on our first day at HS (3 hours for ROTR and 2 hours for Slinky Dog), we decided to purchase Genie+ for our second HS day visit accordingly. The genie+ purchase for our family of 4 was the biggest waste of money spent on our vacation. The ROTR and Slinky Dog Dash LL were gone in mere seconds at 7 am. I was able to get a LL for Rock n Roll Rollercoaster for the afternoon but through stacking my requests at the 2 hour mark there was nothing else available throughout the day that my family needed a LL for (Muppets, Beauty and Beast Show, Star Tours, etc.). We could have ridden single rider Rock n Roll with a similiar wait time without the genie+ fee. Additionally, the subsequent selections for genie+ at the 2 hour or post-utilization interval where for late in the evening when wait times are generally lower with park attendance dropping and when we typically leave the park as well. There were no available LL for Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway, ROTR, or Slinky Dog every time I refreshed. I purchased genie+ at EPCOT and had a better user experience in getting LLs but found that it created touring zig zagging that was fine for a comfortable 75 degree November day but would likely be exhausting in 90 degree with humidity temperatures we have experienced on past trips in other seasons. In retrospect, I should have purchased a single LL for Soarin and waited in other lines for cost savings.
My learnings:
1. Will likely not purchase genie+ again unless the kinks are worked out. Will attempt to purchase a single LL pass for one or two must-do headliners as genie+ essentially gave us one good LL for the days we purchased. Other LL we used were for rides that we really didn’t need to use, much later in the day that we would have preferred, or created unnecessary park back tracking.
2. Will consider staying off-property if we travel to WDW again. Resort room rates coupled with additional parking costs and reduction of staying on-site benefits (magical express, extra magic hours, selection of fast-pass and dining reservation preferred window, resort package delivery, etc.) have made me re-think the overall experience value of a Disney Parks vacation.
3. Will no longer make daily dining reservations ahead of vacation. The inability to ensure you will not be in an extended line que or snag a LL for that return time makes it challenging to manage dining logistics. It is hard to predict when you will have completed your family “must do’s” and ready to leave the parks for any DisneySprings or Deluxe Resort Dining Reservations.
4. Feedback I would offer to Disney:
-Please bring back pre-vacation ride return time block planning capability…charge if you must. As the designated “vacation planner” for my family, the genie and genie+ experience is limiting to that individual. The “Hunger Games” experience of 7 am make or break your family’s day in the parks is not ideal. Not having the ability of having pre-determined ride slots of time made it challenging to keep dining reservations or plan additional WDW vacation add-on activities. Additionally, canceling said dining reservations when your LL return times are within that reservation window should now be easier (requires you to call on day of cancellation rather than accepting app cancel). I prefer relaxed logistics planning at home vs. onsite throughout the day when I want to enjoy my vacation.
-Cost cutting and revenue enhancing measures are understood but please be mindful of the consumer impacts. The Disney experience value is important and something my family has always considered with our vacation dollar loyalty. Our last 3 trips have left us with diminishing value perceptions. The Florida Disney park key competitor is continuing to offer value propositions to their resort guests in terms of preferred tickets/lines, exclusive park entry opening benefits, and ease of on-sight dining reservations within walking distance. At some point, vacationers will no longer be able to afford the add-ons on top of base fees or choose not to spend their vacation dollars if value is not high.
We’re finishing our thanksgiving week at WDW tomorrow and it’s been better than previous trips. In July we couldn’t get on Rise of the Resistance at all but.the last two days we’ve gotten ILL for it no problem. The access code issue seems to happen when trying to use more than one phone or switching between them. As always, prioritize what you want most and do rope drop for whatever you don’t get. If you’re doing rope drop on a busy week you will be awake before 7am anyway. If you aren’t willing to do rope drop, expect to wait a lot during the day.
In the equation of what’s gone wrong since reopening, I have to say that a missing piece is character interactions and parades. Without them, there isn’t enough to do in the parks for the number of people that are there in a given day. WDW has been reduced to an expensive amusement park and is no longer an “experience”. Everyone prioritizes rides because you can pretty much only go on rides or eat. Every attraction has a maximum number of riders it can accommodate in a day, in a perfect operating experience without ride shut-downs or customer-caused slowdowns, and it seems they reach that maximum now before all ticketed guests can get a chance to ride all the ones they desire. There aren’t enough photographers, snack carts, and other ways to eat up minutes and hours of everyone’s day, so we’re left to focus on rides and fast food. I usually defend Disney to friends that don’t understand its appeal, but I’m finding that hard to do now.
I HAVE ONE QUESTION ,,, does anyone have anything positive about the G+
Completely agree with several of the posts. We are still currently here and we tried to use genie+ at Hollywood studios last Tuesday and could not get a single thing after 11am. Well correction we could have done the muppets a bunch of times. Huge waste of 69 bucks.
The Genie app and purchase of daily lightening lane advantage is a waste of money. As a Florida Resident, with an Annual Pass and stays at a resort….there should be some sort of perk for the attractions. The last thing I want to do on vacation is awake and hurry up and get on the app and book rides. I understand technology, but I’m on vacation and don’t want to be on my phone and then HAVE to get up early to plan the day….
I was there during the Thanksgiving Holiday and purchased the Genie..a total waste of my money. Did not even use it. Everything was late or during the light show..
@James Locke-I always got more than 3 with fastpass+ since you could always get more after using your first 3 preselected ones each day so I would not like paying for a limit of 3. Maybe there was more ability to get extra rides on old system because it seems like a lot of people didn’t realize this. Since they are committed to charging for line skipping they really should figure out how universal does it in my opinion
You can thank Bob Cheapek for this money grab that does not work. Just look he wimped out and did not even have the guts to show up to D23 because he knows people are pissed.
James Locke I couldn’t agree more with your idea. A great suggestion. Disney’s current replacement to Fastpass+ is an absolute disaster! The failure to be able to choose a ride time and just be given a slot along with the inability to modify a booking makes Genie+ useless. As far as I understand it, if a dining reservation clashes with your “chosen” time slot then the only choice is to either miss your ride or your meal. Pathetic. I would be willing to pay for Fastpass+ but at least it lets you choose a ride time and you only have to get up early once and not every day as Genie+ requires.
After reading everyone’s opinion I believe they should go back to the old fast pass and simple make it a paid one. That way everyone who goes to Disney World with three paid rides will be more relaxed and magically happy.
My family was at WDW from the Saturday before Thanksgiving and left Thanksgiving day. We did all 4 parks twice using park hoppers. I bought Genie+ 3 out of 4 days. We didn’t buy any individual lightning lanes. I only found Genie+ to be worth it on our days that included Magic Kingdom. I was able to get most rides that we wanted there. Availability ran out too quickly at the others to make it worthwhile. I was able to get Test Track at Epcot and Slinky Dog at Hollywood after a lot of refreshing. Our best strategy was entering lines of the top rides at the very end of the night. We did this with Rise of the Resistance, Flight of Passage, Frozen and Mine Train. Waited 30-45 mins for ROTR and FOP and Frozen and 7DMT were pretty much walk ins despite high posted wait times. Overall, we had a great time and we were able to ride all of our top rides with a combination of LL and standby.
Sincerely, boycott/cancel your Disney+ subscription. Disney+ and beating Netflix, is all Bob Cheap (Chapek) cares about. Drop Disney+ and maybe Disney will drop Bob Cheap. Vote with your wallet (Bob Cheap cares about Disney+ so hit him where it hurts). Just a suggestion that I think will work… you do you.
Just came back from
Disney 2 days before Thanksgiving! I love Disney have been taking my son since he was 5, he is 14. I was disappointed in the system! I bought passes I couldn’t even use because system wouldn’t respond would crash and I purchased genie + only getting one fast pass and bought lighting lane a few times. System has many kinks and can not handle people. I am so sad that they charge for all of this! We go every other year and since pandemic we haven’t! I have always wanted to go to park dining holidays. I took my 14 year old we also did very merry after party was nice it rained that night so show was canceled every time, didn’t get to see parade! But fireworks amazing. Last day in Hollywood we had a lightning lane for Aerosmith roller coaster, Starwars rise resistance said 105 so we said perfect we can do that and then use lightning lane after. We waited 4 hrs missed the pass I bought ride kept breaking down! I was upset, we got on the ride first thing in morning at 8 am they opened early for Disney hotel resort guest! We loved it so much wanted to go on it again. Well big mistake we missed lightning lane due to not wanting to get out of line when you already waited 2 hrs your investment is high! I miss early magic and after magic hours that was a big perk! I think they are taking away reasons why we choose Disney resort over local ones! Magical express is amazing service! I always use it and stay within Disney resorts, but if no perks why not stay at local cheaper room! Never in it away!
Would it be helpful for 2 or more people in a “planning party” to hop on at 7AM and try to snag things? Is it even possible to do that? And what do you need to do to get ready for 7:00- can you purchase Genie+ before 7 to make selections at 7? How in the world am I going to coordinate this to get my parents on the same LL rides? Can I buy Genie+ for them, as part of the planning party? This does sound like an unnecessarily stressful way to start a vacation day!!
Just returned from the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Author is right. This system cannot handle the volumes. It was maybe forgivable and able to be planned around under the old system, but being forced to “reserve” a park and pay full freight then, “buy up” before getting a look at Genie plus ride availability to the park you are now locked into is unforgivable. It will be a long time before we revisit Disney again. We have been going twice a year for eight years. My money couldn’t have been spent worse. They have finally gone too far in trying to win back lost revenue. Total sham as I purchased this $65 upgrade and only got .ish rides and never three in a day.
Just came back yesterday. Genie + is AWFUL. We purchased for our family of 4 and went to Hollywood Studio on Monday. The assessment the author of this article makes about “starting your day out with headaches at 7 am and spending the day glued to your phone dealing with bugs and other problems” is so spot on. We were all miserable. I was absolutely glued to my phone, waiting for LL to open up and they never did. I made one at 7am for 5:25 pm on Smugglers Run and only one more at 11am for a 6pm entry for Toy Story. But all day long I kept checking, hoping more would open up. Nothing did. Most rides never showed ANY openings for Genie +. It is a total racket. Disgusting. Shame on Disney. They ruined one whole day for us because of their greed. My wife was so unhappy. She asked that we not get Genie+ for the Magic Kingdom and we were SO much happier. We got on everything we wanted to and just took our time. We also almost missed the 2 LL we did book because we spent 4.5 hours waiting in the standby line for Rise and then it broke down for the 2nd time when we were already in the room with the stormtroopers. Then we had to run like crazy to make both of them and then get back to Rise before the park closed. Never again would I waste my money.
Based on the screens shots showing no standby line my conclusion is Disney can pound sand and stick it where the sun don’t shine. Been going there 45 years and the guest friendly experience has been long gone. The entire experience is now a money grab catering to folks with money to burn and unsuspecting folks who will be ticked off they spent so much on a room and regular entry tickets and enjoy very little with them. I have money to burn just not on Disney knowing it use to worth it now it ain’t.
There’s no standby line in the screenshots because the parks weren’t open yet–those are from ~7 am.