Tom’s Day at Magic Kingdom Not Using Genie+
As an alternative to regular standby lines, Walt Disney World’s new Genie+ ride reservation system launched for select attractions in Magic Kingdom and the other parks. This walks you through my step-by-step day not using Genie+, from park opening until closing, with a look at everything I accomplished without spending any extra money. It’s a companion post to Sarah’s day with Genie+, which is coming soon.
My original intent was to use the free Genie feature to see how it performed head to head against the paid Genie+ service. This is already going to be a long post, so I’ll simply refer you to our Free Disney Genie Itinerary Creator Review for thorough thoughts on that and why that plan was abandoned before even arriving to Magic Kingdom.
Instead, I went with a mix of my instincts, observations, and experience in visiting Magic Kingdom hundreds of times. While the new Genie “stuff” will unquestionably and dramatically change the way people visit Walt Disney World, it’s not exactly reinventing the wheel. Anyway, let’s start our day at MK…
We arrived at Magic Kingdom shortly before rope drop. In addition to being standby only, I also didn’t have access to Early Theme Park Entry since we weren’t staying on-site. On top of that, it was a Disney After Hours Boo Bash date, meaning Magic Kingdom closed 90 minutes earlier than normal and there would be a mix-in of event guests before that.
Given all of that, it felt a bit like the deck was stacked against me. Obviously not ideal for a casual tourist, but oddly enough, exactly the circumstances I wanted for this day at Magic Kingdom. It provided for a more challenging field test, and would prove more satisfying once I “prevailed” in my quest to conquer most Magic Kingdom attractions, against all odds…
Also, what Sarah didn’t know–because I didn’t tell her–was that my goal was to “outperform” her day with Genie+ while only using the standby lines. I am fiercely competitive about certain things, almost all of which are totally pointless and non-adversarial scenarios. I’m also aware this is not exactly a popular personality trait, so I mostly keep it to myself.
In any case and for whatever reason, I developed this obstinate obsession with getting a lot done without Genie+ in Magic Kingdom on its launch day. Just to prove the haters wrong. (Or in this case, I guess, prove them right–since most people seem to hate Genie+.)
Anyway, even though Sarah and I were bitter rivals during this day in Magic Kingdom, we started by heading together towards Jungle Cruise. The intent was for her to do that via Genie+ and Lightning Lane, while I did it via standby to see how much extra time it cost me.
Naturally, the best laid plans of the Mouse and magical blue men often go awry: Jungle Cruise was down to start the day, throwing a monkey wrench into both of our plans.
I called a quick audible and headed deeper into the frontier, finding short posted wait times at both Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain.
Even though Splash Mountain averages a much longer wait time throughout the day, I gambled on Big Thunder first since it has a shorter ride duration. I got in line for BTMRR at 9:10 with a posted 10 minute wait, and waited a total of 6 minutes.
It was on to Splash Mountain from there, which was still sporting a 5 minute posted wait time (vindicating my decision to do Big Thunder first). In actuality, it was a walk-on (it took 4 minutes) and was still dispatching empty logs at that point. I was already done with half of the Magic Kingdom Mountain Range by 9:39 am–not too shabby!
My next stop was Pirates of the Caribbean, which still only had a 10 minute posted wait. This might seem like an odd choice, but PotC is the #7 attraction in terms of Magic Kingdom wait times this month, and everything else but Haunted Mansion had already spiked. However, I saw that the line was already backed up to near the entrance and that coupled with Genie+ returns almost certainly meant a wait time significantly longer than 10 minutes. That plus the opportunity cost led me to bail.
Instead, I took a big gamble on Jungle Cruise, which was now up and had a posted 50 minute wait. I was almost certain this was both wildly inaccurate and likely to cause other guests to avoid it since so many attractions still had posted wait times under 20 minutes.
I was once again vindicated, as the posted wait time dropped to 30 minutes shortly after I jumped in line, and my actual wait was 23 minutes. Not bad for what is currently the #2 ride in Magic Kingdom after Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in terms of average daily waits.
The downside of doing two water rides back to back is that they inspire you to go…and I don’t mean deeper and deeper into the jungle. That pit stop cost me crucial minutes, and by the time I made my way over to Haunted Mansion, its line was already outside the marquee.
I debated doing it anyway, as Haunted Mansion is currently #5 in average Magic Kingdom wait times, but I figured it would get shorter later in the day, totally forgetting about Boo Bash and proximity Halloween. Rookie mistake. (In fairness, I live in Central Florida where Halloween has been in full swing for two months already. I’m ready for it to be over at this point.)
Instead, I raced over to Space Mountain, which had a 30 minute posted wait time at 10:34 am.
The line was not out the front entrance, which was a good sign. My fear was that this would spike later in the day as guests encountered long lines everywhere and became more inclined to buy their way out of crowds. My actual wait ended up being 22 minutes, which I will gladly take.
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin was next up at 11:05, with a posted wait time of 20 minutes and an actual wait time of 13 minutes.
I’m a sucker for this attraction, but it falls a bit flatter when Sarah is not around to impress with my ability to max out the blaster at 999,999 points. (She claims to be unimpressed by this, but how could she not be?!)
While in line for Space Ranger Spin, I placed a Mobile Order at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe for the Mission to Mars Burger. It was still relatively early, but I wanted to beat the lunch rush and not wait for my food. I hit “I’m Here” while exiting Buzz, and received the notification that it was ready right as I walked up to the entrance of Cosmic Ray’s. That made me feel pretty cool–it’s the small victories.
Less cool was eating this burger by myself. Not because I have any anxiety about eating alone, but because this very bright, very orange burger bun left my face looking like George Sanderson. I’m not one to mask outdoors, but I made an exception en route to the restroom to wash my face.
While leaving the restroom next to Cheshire Cafe, I could hear Mickey’s Celebration Cavalcade approaching.
I made a beeline for Main Street to see it. Fortunately, I’m much faster than parade floats, and managed to get a pretty good spot.
Immediately after that, I saw the Main Street Philharmonic coming out from near Crystal Palace, so I stopped and watched their set.
I know it’s divisive, but I’m a fan of “The Magic is Calling.” Every celebration should have an anthem, and I strongly believe this will become more beloved over time, especially as guests develop nostalgia and associate memories of their trips with this song.
Anyway, after that I headed over to Casey’s Corner, where the pianist was finishing up his set.
Three entertainment acts all in close proximity to one another and in a short time span–what is this, Disneyland?!
From there, it was back to Carousel of Progress at 12:34 pm.
No line for that–but just wait until Genie starts giving out “Surprise Lightning Lanes!” for it.
I saw that the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover had a relatively short line and the sun was behind clouds, so I opted for that next. The posted wait time at 1:02 pm was 15 minutes, and my actual wait time was 10 minutes.
From there, it was on to Storybook Circus, where Dumbo was my next stop. The posted wait time was 20 minutes, and my actual wait was 14 minutes.
Since I was already in the neighborhood, and Barnstormer had a 5 minute wait time (it might’ve jumped to 10 after I got in line–not totally sure), I did that. The actual wait was 7 minutes.
Had I been one party earlier in line, I would’ve had a shorter wait than guests using Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. It’s always interesting when you can see the entire line and merge point. (Moral of the story: Barnstormer is probably not a high priority Genie+ attraction…but we all probably knew that already!)
Although it may not seem like it given my day thus far, wait times were building throughout Magic Kingdom, with about a half-dozen attractions over an hour.
Given that I was going for quality and quantity, I opted to do Sam Eagle proud with the distinctly patriotic one-two punch of Country Bear Jamboree and Hall of Presidents. I had minimal wait for both of these, but since they’re so long, they ate up the better part of an hour.
I was also getting tired (not from the subject matter of those shows) and feared losing my edge, so it was time for a Starbucks stop. Sarah met up with me there, and we waited about 15 minutes at 2:52 pm.
From start to finish at Starbucks, that’s not too bad.
We played around with her Genie+ PhotoPass AR filters for a while, which was a surprising amount of fun. I’ve been instructed not to share our outtakes or how much difficulty we had with these since we don’t want to ruin the impression (held by none of you to begin with) that we’re hip and trendy. Suffice to say, there’s a reason neither of us have Snapchat–I’ll just leave it at that.
As an aside, I strongly suspect that all of this photo fun was a big ruse. While I have no evidence to confirm this, I believe Sarah was trying to mess up my stats as she waited out her next Genie+ reservation. Even though I never told her we were competing, she always seems to intuitively know when I’m hatching schemes.
We parted ways and I headed to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which had just returned from downtime. I got in line at 3:51 pm, when the posted wait time was 20 minutes and the line didn’t appear too bad.
This was a good lesson in line lengths once again being irrelevant now that Genie+ is in use. The line moved at a snail’s pace as a steady stream of Genie+ returns flowed into that line. My actual wait time was 27 minutes (the posted wait time jumped to 45 minutes by the time I exited the attraction).
From there, it was time to knock out everything else I had missed in Fantasyland. Next up was “it’s a small world,” which had a posted wait time of 15 minutes and an actual wait time of 10 minutes.
Following that, whatever the Little Mermaid dark ride is called, which had a 25 minute posted wait but an actual wait time of 21 minutes. While I think this attraction is actually underrated, I’d normally hold off on it until the wait time subsided–but I was running out of hours in the day and still had a lot to get done.
From there, I crossed through Fantasyland to see if I might be able to pick off Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan’s Flight, or Haunted Mansion, but all had lines that were prohibitive. Haunted Mansion was literally the longest I’ve seen it in years, and that would’ve been exacerbated by Genie+ making standby even slower-moving.
Instead, I headed over to Adventureland to knock out a couple more attractions there, starting with Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. I timed this poorly, waiting 10 minutes for the next show.
Following that, it was time for Pirates of the Caribbean.
This had a posted wait time of 45 minutes at 6:10 pm, but I had no other options with only ~2 hours left in the day and the Disney After Hours Boo Bash mix-in starting to cause wait times to increase throughout the park–something that would not happen during a normal day in Magic Kingdom. Fortunately, my actual wait was only 31 minutes, but still longer than I would’ve liked.
At this point, it was almost 7 pm and all wait times on what I needed to finish were longer than ideal. I debated knocking out Haunted Mansion, but its line wasn’t any shorter than before. I almost did it just to “prove” my approach worked, but I put my pride aside. Instead, we regrouped for the night, playing with the PhotoPass AR filters included with Genie+ (let us know if there’s interest in a post running through all the options).
After it got too dark to continue using the AR filters, we headed to Tomorrowland to see if Astro Orbiter was a viable option, as it was one of the only things Sarah had yet to do. At 7:32 pm, the posted wait time for Astro Orbiter was 35 minutes and our actual wait was 14 minutes. Not too bad for an attraction that is exponentially better at night, anyway.
We didn’t have much time until Disney Enchantment, and planned on knocking out another attraction after the fireworks, so we debated between doing the PeopleMover or heading to the Tomorrowland bridge or Fantasyland.
While the PeopleMover would’ve been a relaxing way to end the day, the bridge was a strategically better option. Towards the end of the fireworks, we made our way towards Seven Dwarfs Mine Train…
As we approached Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, I noticed that there was literally no one in line outside–the area all the day into the building was clear. This meant that, at most, the ride had a 10-15 minute wait.
With this in mind, we decided not to watch the finale of Disney Enchantment from Fantasyland. Instead, we jumped in line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train just before the fireworks ended with a sliver of hope that it wouldn’t be our last ride of the night. The posted wait time was 50 minutes, our wait time was between 3 and 4 minutes. It was a walk-on with some empty rows!
We easily made it to Peter Pan’s Flight before Magic Kingdom closed at 8:30 pm. By this time, the posted wait time was 30 minutes. Our actual wait time was 10 minutes, but the line was growing as we got off (due to the start of Boo Bash).
Ultimately, I am really satisfied with my day at Magic Kingdom without paying for Genie+. I accomplished a lot with an aggressive approach and only standby lines. It was a moderately crowded day, yet I managed to do 20 attractions, including almost every single headliner and several lengthy shows. I did far more than the average guest, despite staying off-site and doing this plan on a day with an early closing due to the After Hours event.
My plan wasn’t flawless, but I did have a few advantages. First, more knowledge than the average first-timer that better positioned me to make real-time adjustments to my itinerary. Not trying to toot my own horn, that’s simply the reality of testing itineraries at Magic Kingdom all the time. Second, a willingness to walk; I logged over 21,000 steps and criss-crossed the park (at lightning speed!) several times over. Third, I got really lucky at the end of the night being able to knock out both SDMT and PPF.
In addition to that, I would say that the crowd level was generally on my side. As discussed in October Crowds Spike at Walt Disney World, wait times have shot up but still aren’t bad for this time of year or the beginning of the World’s Most Magical Celebration. While some recent visitors dispute this characterization of crowds, it’s far better than I expected. If attendance was even 1 level higher or more guests bought Genie+, my results wouldn’t have been as good.
Finally, my day was not exactly relaxed. Part of this is because I kept tinkering around with the free Genie system, but another part was because I was so fixated on optimizing my approach. On the occasions when Sarah and I met up, and again at the end of the day, her demeanor and overall enjoyment of Magic Kingdom was far better and higher than mine. (Well, her demeanor is always better than mine, but that’s not the point!) She reiterated how much fun she was having on multiple occasions, and was very pleased with how things were going with Genie+.
This is something I’m willing to include in my report because I know the feeling. I remember using MaxPass at Disneyland and how that made the park experience both more relaxed and more efficient. That cuts against the prevailing narrative of Genie+ “forcing” people to get up early and have their faces glued to screens, but that narrative is simply inaccurate–and largely perpetuated by people who have never used Genie+ or even MaxPass.
Ultimately, the good news is that you can still have a great day at Magic Kingdom by using only standby lanes and savvy strategy. My results are proof of that, and the same would hold true even if 4-5 attractions were removed from what I accomplished. However, visiting Walt Disney World and accomplishing a lot without Genie+ or Lightning Lanes will take a little more work and effort. Whether you value your time or money more is a personal question. As a matter of principle, I’m extremely glad this day went so well, as guests should be able to enjoy Magic Kingdom like “normal” without spending even more. With that said, if I only had one day per year in Magic Kingdom as an actual tourist and not a tester, buying Genie+ would’ve been an absolute no brainer.
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Your Thoughts
Thoughts on my day in Magic Kingdom without using the paid Genie+ service? Does this make you feel better about doing standby-only on your next trip to Walt Disney World? Are you planning on buying Genie+ or skipping it? 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!
Your and Sarah’s account seems to line up the most with what I am thinking as far as Genie+ goes.
I think a lot of people testing it have one advantage that we don’t, they don’t have their kids with them. So yes, it’s easy to book it to ride after ride and knock out 3 rides during Early Morning, but when you got two elementary-aged kids (like me) or god forbid a terrible twos toddler, even on a non busy day, it gets hard to juggle. So I can see Genie+ being useful to a family even with moderate or moderate-light crowds.
great point! This crossed my mind too.
Just want to say this was so fun to read. Not only was this post informative, but your personality made it very entertaining! Thank you for the great info! I can’t wait to read Sarah’s next!
Hi Tom, I was thinking that I was right by you as you explained what attractions you were seeing. As an experienced WDW ( my self included- meaning I know where all the attractions are located) you definitely had an advantage from the first timer, with children. I remember it was a lot slower when my kids were little- just because they couldn’t walk as fast as myself and the many stops for the bathroom and snacks. Happily now I can go and not rely on seeing what the kids want , since I am old and my kids are grown.
I don’t need to walk so fast, there are just a few rides that I want to see, I noticed you didn’t do any shopping ( lol ) or eating at a sit down ( which is a favorite of mine ) which many families or just me enjoy more than the rides. Even if I am leaving a park to go somewhere else to eat.
That being said, you rocked the park! Seriously showing people that if you arrive early with a bit of knowledge, you CAN accomplish a lot at the MK without Genie+
I have to say I loved reading your account of the day, I actually have read it a couple of times and I still giggle a bit in your writing. I now will read Sarah’s day..
By the way, loved the photo’s of the rides you were on, and the ones with you and Sarah.
I really feel like I was there racing around to all my favorite rides with you. And since my trip to the USA is coming up in December for WDW, I wonder how much time I will be using on my phone. I am going the second week in December hoping for that sweet spot of less people, and being able to enjoy Christmas decorations ( silly, but that is one of the reasons of going at this time) .
Sorry this was so long, but I really enjoyed your day. Thanks- or grazi mille!
Thank you for the stand by only experience. We only like a handful of rides that we would do in the morning and late in the evening (when open longer). The rest of the day is shopping, eating, walking around and looking. We always stay on property so taking a mid afternoon nap is built in. Glad to hear it’s still possible to do this.
It would be really interesting to see if you did actually follow the proposed Genie (not plus) itinerary for the day. I know it looks awful, and probably just steers you to all the low-traffic attractions, but what would a day look like if someone just naively followed all of its instructions? For most of the readers here, it’s not worth the risk of losing a day at Disney trying to follow it, but you go often enough, that it could potentially make a good article.
I think your “21,00 steps at lightening speed” comment should no go aside without emphasis. Criss-crossing the park, often retracing the same path you took earlier, bouncing back and forth between lands would not be relaxing or fun for me. I did a nerd-o thing and took a screen shot of the park and drew a slug trail of each attraction you visited and the path between them. The result looked like a bad spider web. Of course, I have no idea of the actual path you took but I used the most logical route. I wish I could attached it here. Perhaps that is one idea Disney is hoping for…a people-eater. Getting guests continuously walking back and forth…or pay for not doing that. the most relaxing time we’ve had is at Disneyland with no bags, no snacks, no phone even, nuthin’. Just showed up when clockwise, did what we could, ate when and where we wanted and done.
Thank you for the insights on Genie+ and battery use.
I learned long ago that Disney does not care how much you spend nor how long you wait in lines. Two rides per day with 3 hour waits on the opposite sides of the park? Fine by them….
Your cell phone Battery will definitely NOT make it a whole day in WDW. I brought 3 battery back ups & had to recharge each one every night Back at the resort. WiFi is poor or nonexistent in many parts of DISNEY WORLD. A handy hint someone gave me was to take screenshots of your schedule for the day. Then you can see it in Photos instead of hoping you can find some Wi-Fi at WDW. Be sure to update it as you add rides, dining, etc. Thanks for this article! Doesn’t seem quite fair to pay for an expensive park ticket and then pay again to ride while waiting a reasonable period of time.
It sounds like you are on your phone almost continuously to make this happen, Genie+ or not. I am coming in December and starting to worry that my iPhone battery won’t last the day!
Hi! I love this comparison set of articles, and would love to see this for every park… provided that you are always “stand by,” and Sarah is always Genie+!
I’d also love to see you follow exactly what Genie says for a day, no matter how nonsensical their recommendations may be…
Love the premise of both of these articles! Can’t wait to read Sarah’s next. This was a pretty impressive lineup, that’s for sure. I think I could pull off something similar, but I know my husband would hate having to crisscross the park that many times!
@Nicki. This is my understanding so someone correct me if I’m wrong. You cannot do repeats with Genie +. Further, if you book Rock n’ roller coaster and then don’t ride it for whatever reason, Genie thinks you’ve done the ride and you cannot reschedule it. You CAN cancel it up to a certain period of time before your ride window starts. None of the attractions that are available are on Genie + are available for individual purchase. Each park has two premier attractions that are available for individual purchase – but they won’t be the ones available with Genie + . Using your example of Rock N’ roller coaster, you could book RnR for say 11:00am and then rope drop RnR – giving yourself two opportunities to ride RnR. And then if you want to ride a third time, you could keep an eye on the wait times to ride again. But yeah, Genie + attractions are a one and done (for that day. Again, this is just my understanding from what I’ve read/watched.