Review: Disney World’s Free Genie Itinerary Creator
Walt Disney World’s new free Genie service creates customized and dynamic 1-day itineraries inspired by your party’s top interests, best times to do attractions based on wait times, walking distances, and more. This review covers how our experience testing the complimentary Genie planner measures up to what was promised.
Let’s start with the pitch for the ambitious new Genie service. Walt Disney World stated that this complimentary and convenient new digital service was designed to make planning easier, offer more flexibility, and better tools to help you make the most of your visit. The company indicated it had made significant investments in this new technology, which guides you through the theme parks with tips that can help you reduce time in lines, discover new things, and take the guesswork out of your day.
Built into the My Disney Experience app, the Genie service aims to maximize your park time. It offers a personalized itinerary feature that will quickly and seamlessly map out an entire day, so you can have more fun. From specific attractions, dining, and entertainment to general interests like princesses, villains, slow rides, thrill rides, and more–just tell Disney Genie what you want to do and it will do the planning for you. Then throughout the day, Disney Genie will work hard behind the scenes to offer new suggestions and continuously update your “My Day” itinerary, so you can make the most of a visit to the parks.
In addition to the sales pitch via marketing materials, Walt Disney World provided more details about the system during a tech demo that explained the free Disney Genie service in plain language. During that, Disney stated that the goal is to match guests’ desires with best available capacity. The system will recommend experiences aligned with guest interests, optimized at the best times with the lowest waits.
A comparison was also offered, with the free Disney Genie service being likened to a navigation app on a phone, taking into account dynamic traffic patterns and real time conditions in the park. Just like Google Maps, for example, Genie would adjust for operational changes, including unexpected operational downtime or wait times that extend longer than what was previously forecast. We’re going to come back to this comparison in our analysis, as it’s both a logical and relevant one.
Per Walt Disney World, Genie is not a static itinerary–it’s dynamic. In addition to automatically adjusting for on the ground changes, Genie can be modified by guests to account for changes in their priorities or desires–like wanting to eat earlier. The idea is that Walt Disney World compares user preferences with its consumer insights and experience ratings, checking the availability of experiences, and whether guests have existing plans.
In creating the “My Day” itinerary, Genie will evaluate hundreds of thousands of combinations of a potential day at Walt Disney World. The algorithm will score each iteration against priorities that make a great day, taking into account the aforementioned consumer insights and ratings, Park Hopper & other existing guest plans, identified priorities, walking distances, idle time, and more. It also factors in recommendations made to other guests, so it’s not sending everyone to the same place at the same time.
On the backend, the Genie’s algorithm will quickly crunch all of that data to achieve all competing goals (or as many as possible), making a series of compromises, and assigning a score to the various permutations of a given itinerary. All within seconds, the algorithm will then provide the “My Day” Itinerary to guests, which can be further customized in the My Disney Experience app.
The free Disney Genie itinerary offers transparency, explaining to guests why certain recommendations were made to them–with rationales ranging from it being a good time wait-wise to the venue offering air conditioning–with a click of the “Why This” button.
We’ve been skeptical of the free Disney Genie service since it was announced back at the D23 Expo three years ago (above screenshot from that). We barely even analyzed it at the time, mostly dismissing its promises with a short paragraph: “Those are mighty high hopes to have for the company that gave us My Disney Experience, an app that still feels like it’s beta-testing software some 7 years after it debuted. If this Disney Genie software works as promised, it could be great. I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Our attitude in the time since has been a mix of skepticism and pessimism, avoiding much analysis because we felt what the company promised and its true intentions and capabilities with the free Disney Genie service might be two very different things.
Disney IT doesn’t exactly have the best of track records–a mild understatement–and Walt Disney World has a vested interest in making suggestions that are most advantageous to it from an operational perspective. Honestly, part of me questioned whether Genie would ever see the light of day as announced, or morph into something totally different.
With all of that said, I have to admit that after the impressive tech demo, I was second-guessing my own skepticism. Could Walt Disney World actually pull this off and produce a dynamic itinerary builder that would revolutionize visiting a Disney theme park and be mutually beneficial for Disney and guests?!
So far, the answer is a resounding no.
Our original plan for the launch of Disney Genie was for Sarah to use the paid Genie+ service while I tested the free Genie service against that to see just how much its suggestions would enable me to accomplish. However, the recommendations were so bad and/or nonsensical that this plan was abandoned before even arriving at Magic Kingdom. Instead, I used my own plan to “compete” with Sarah and Genie+ (full reports on those results coming later today).
Throughout the day, I kept tinkering with the free Genie service to see if I could “game” the system to give me something useful. First, I tried simply swapping out attractions on the itinerary that were recommended based on my actual interests.
That wasn’t yielding any useful results, so after clicking “Why This” on a few attractions, I went back and removed certain interests to build an entirely new day. That didn’t prove any more fruitful, so I removed all interests, only specifying the 8 attractions I wanted to experience. That also did not work.
The result was a comedy of errors. If you read How to Set Up Free Genie Itineraries in My Disney Experience, you might’ve seen that Prince Charming Regal Carrousel was my first attraction of the day. A curious rope drop recommendation, to be sure.
My fun with Prince Charming Regal Carrousel didn’t end there.
For a while, no matter what I did, Prince Charming Regal Carrousel was my top recommendation. Even after I removed all of my interests and specified only 8 attractions that I wanted to do–none of which were Prince Charming Regal Carrousel, for the record–it still came back as my next thing to do.
Clicking Genie’s “Why This” rationale for the recommendation provided some needed comic relief. (Then again, maybe Disney’s algorithm is so advanced that it knows I’m a huge toboggan enthusiast?!)
As I continued to build new itineraries, Genie briefly stopped recommending Prince Charming Regal Carrousel. Instead, it started giving me Tinker Bell & the Lost Treasure and Swiss Family Treehouse. Hey, variety is the spice of life!
In addition to these suspect recommendations, I found that when I stopped adding my dining interests, it sent me exclusively to unpopular restaurants. Tortuga Tavern was a staple of my afternoon. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that, but the why of that recommendation is pretty transparent.
In fairness, Disney Genie did produce some worthwhile recommendations from time to time. In fact, it repeatedly recommended Haunted Mansion mid-morning, which was savvy advice given what the day held. There were other good picks from time to time, too.
The problem is that Genie didn’t produce a single complete itinerary that was good and without at least a few puzzling results. Anyone with modest knowledge of Magic Kingdom would’ve been better off following their own intuition rather than the entirety of the itineraries.
In playing around with the free Genie feature, one specific quibble I have is that it’s clearly giving way too much weight to walking distance. Most of my recommendations were near one another, and the majority of the time that I tried to do a “Swaperoo,” the recommended alternatives were either close by or unpopular.
I had plenty of other specific issues, errors, and problems with the free Genie service, but I don’t see the point in fixating on all of that too much. Rather, I have one ‘big picture’ complaint that encompasses many of those…
The free Genie feature is ultimately not nearly enough like a navigation app. Google Maps and Waze offer a variety of route options that effectively empower users to choose how “aggressive” they want to be in using the fastest or shortest routes.
There are options for selecting a time to depart or arrive, options for choosing arrival and departure times, adding stops, and more. On their face, most navigation apps are simple and straightforward–but offer a powerful tool kit for advanced users who want more control.
The free Disney Genie service needs this. It’s nice to be able to toggle height and accessibility, but there should be a lot more of this. At a minimum, arrival and departure times are necessary.
Beyond that, the ability to give weight to walking, idle time, and other things the algorithm is taking into consideration. It’s understandable that certain guests might want to minimize distance between attractions; conversely, I am more than willing to walk all the way across the park to save 10 minutes.
Our biggest source of pre-debut skepticism with the free Disney Genie service was that it would disproportionately benefit the company, redistributing crowds to places where they’re low and attractions that are underutilized. This is nothing new–back in the paper FastPass days there were the ‘Bonus’ or ‘Surprise’ FastPasses given out for Carousel of Progress and other unpopular attractions. Those were shockingly effective in getting guests to see certain shows–we noticed a visible increase in the audience size at Carousel of Progress when those surprise FastPasses were given out at the Space Mountain FP machine.
The FastPass+ era had its own version of this, with the “consolation prize” FastPasses for shows and attractions that were in no way popular. This produced the exact same result, as there’s a certain satisfaction in securing a FastPass, even an unnecessary one, to anything. Once guests have those (unnecessary) FastPasses, they are more likely to use them.
The free version of Disney Genie is like a caricature of its predecessors. At least those were giving you something–the ability to skip the line somewhere–and confined to only a few line items on an itinerary, at most. In my testing, Genie usually offered poor recommendations, pushed guests towards unpopular attractions, and offered nothing in the way of line skipping. Pure operational upside for Disney, pure downside for guests.
The severe imbalance is a problem–and not just for guests. If I were a first-timer who followed these recommendations and focused my day prioritizing flat rides, walkthroughs, and stage shows–and then did a handful of headliners with long waits, my satisfaction would’ve been lower. It should go without saying, but that’s not good for Walt Disney World in the long-term.
If I were an experienced guest or had done any degree of research, I would’ve dismissed the free Genie itinerary out of hand and not done any of its recommendations. Most guests aren’t going to try “hacking” Genie to get it to spit out something useful–they’re going to give up on it after 30 seconds. This is also not good for Disney, as the capacity reallocater isn’t particularly effective if no one is using it.
There’s an opportunity for balance, and some mutually beneficial suggestions. Imagine if the free Disney Genie service recommended I start my day by bypassing Fantasyland and walking deep into Frontierland for those two mountains. I would’ve saved a ton of time, been very satisfied, and more inclined to follow Genie’s subsequent recommendations. On top of that, Magic Kingdom’s capacity allocations would’ve benefited from pushing some guests deeper into the park. There need to be at least some win-win scenarios like that, otherwise this is all totally pointless.
Ultimately, the free Disney Genie service is pretty much useless at this point, and it’s tough to see any viable circumstances or use cases for it. The recommendations are flawed at best, and total nonsense at worst. (Seriously, there should’ve been an invite-only beta test–this doesn’t feel like it was ready to be released to the general public.) Even if that weren’t the case and the itineraries were okay, there aren’t enough options for customization to tailor it to actual guest preferences and plans.
With that said, there are good ideas in the free Disney Genie service and it has a ton of untapped potential. “Google Maps but for Walt Disney World itineraries” is an excellent idea (and not exactly an original one given the great work done on that front by the team at TouringPlans). If Disney combined that concept with working technology and its own internal data, it could be a total game changer–something mutually beneficial for operations and guests, making the parks more efficient for everyone. Unfortunately, the free Genie service falls well short of that for now. Here’s hoping the team behind it continues to iterate on the idea and the function improves over time.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the free Genie service? Planning on using it to build your itinerary, or do you think it won’t be useful? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? 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!
Lol Darren’s comment was obviously sarcasm. But all jokes aside, @Darren, I hope you have a wonderful first trip! I always laugh at your comments, so I’m looking forward to hearing what you think about the Vacation Kingdom. Disneyland park vs MK is an argument WDW fans can’t win, but the resort as a whole is fantastic IMO.
And Tom, thanks for the helpful review. I had my doubts but wanted to be optimistic because, as TP has shown, this concept could absolutely work if Disney wanted it to. Imagine if they used the park reservation system to know how many guests are attending MK in a given day, and then once people input their preferences and expected times in the park, they guided people proportionally to keep the lines balanced throughout the day. Now that would be magical! I’m not at the parks yet, so I don’t have real time use, but I played around with the app a lot yesterday to try to get to know how it works, and my biggest gripe overall is that it’s not user friendly. Some things are, but a lot took more steps than necessary and hiding “My Plans” without giving us another way to view more than one day at a time is very annoying. It’s still available by searching for it, but it used to all be right there. When I’m in between trips, I get my fix by reading this blog and staring longingly at my My Plans to get excited about what I have coming up. I also saw on Twitter that some people’s park passes and ADRs disappeared or showed up on wrong dates after they updated the apps. Yikes.
Today I am testing from home for Magic Kingdom and I am horrified that Country Bear Jamboree is no where to be found as a selection, on the Tip Board, or Recommendation – nowhere. I had to go look under the normal wait times just to be sure it’s still there. It’s a grievous oversight.
Maybe it’ll be a good thing for those of us that know better than to use it? Perhaps it’ll push newbies to little used attractions and lower wait times at E tickets. Anyone with any park knowledge would avoid these suggestions.
Like you Tom I’m willing to give it a go – but this has confirmed my expectations.
as to Darren – who has yet to visit for the first time- enjoy the carousel !! How anyone can say Tom is biased against Disney is beyond me – I always appreciate your blogs Tom and respect the care you put into sharing your knowledge and insights.
I will be continuing with my touring plan subscription.
I guess in Genie’s defense, it can’t send everyone to the mountains. It has to send *someone* to the carousel. But, that said, I’m confused who the target audience for this app really is. Experienced tourers won’t need it or trust it, and new tourers will find it too complicated and not dynamic enough (as you pointed out.) Plus, I have been hearing reports that there is no good way to mark something as ‘done’ so that it doesn’t come up as a recommendation over and over again.
I have heard some positive aspects though, like being directed to entertainment nearby that I would enjoy but probably not think to look up. But that is a benefit for people with more than one day in a park…not someone trying to get the most out of a right-of-passage vacation.
“A resounding no” gave me a laugh. I pretty much expected that based on the build up in the previous paragraphs.
I ‘tested’ the free genie from home by getting a park pass reservation for my wife and I (we are Annual Passholders) for Epcot. One thing I noticed right away is that it assumed we would be at the park until close so it seemed to stretch recommendations out all day. I couldn’t find a way to let It know what times we might actually be at the park. There was an option to add next park so I chose Magic Kingdom and it let me choose start and end times for park hopping there.
One thing that I thought was actually useful is from the Tip Board there is a tab for Dining which will list restaurants with next available reservation times or mobile order times. You can click on it to take you right to the reservation screen or mobile order screen. I thought this is better than looking through all the restaurants one at a time.
Exactly what I expected. TouringPlans isn’t going anywhere.
About a third of they way into your article, I starting thinking thank goodness we still have Touring Plans. Jeez Louise, rope dropping the Carousel? It’s laughable. Just use Touring Plans and you will be good to go. Quite confident it won’t take them long to figure out how to assist with developing the best plan for your family rather than Disney trying to do what? Get people who don’t know any better to blindly follow Disney’s suggestions and end up rope dropping the Carousel or It’s a Small World? Yikes.
Glad to know that my Touringplans subscription will still go to good use!
They should of collated itinerary’s from experienced holiday makers from a diverse selection of groups, rather than rely on the data produced from AI technology, which is incapable of expressing the thrill of rides or experiencing the atmosphere from a human prospective. Artificial intelligence will be their downfall, maybe not in this CEO’s life time.. He will be too busy counting the dollars and not the naff feedback anyways.
Folks, look, obviously this “reviewer” is biased against Disney, there is NOTHING wrong with the free service. Has this “Tom” ever considered that Disney’s goal is for the guest to have the most fun possible in any given day? Has he considered Prince Charming’s Regal and Medievally-Spelled Carrousel is actually the most fun he could possibly have at that moment? He admits right here in this “review” that he didn’t even try it! How is he to say he wouldn’t have had maximum fun if he had simply followed the app that could not possibly steer you wrong. I am going on my first visit to Walt Disney World in a little over a month, and if Genie tells me to ride Prince Charming’s Regal Carrousel (sic), then I’m going to ride it with a Smile on my face and Magic in my heart. I will ride it all 8 times if that’s what Disney tells me to do. I will mobile order a hot dog from Lunching Pad at 10:05 AM. I WILL spend the rest of my day on a bench on Tom Sawyer Island until it’s time to spend an hour in Swiss Family Treehouse before the park closes. Because that is called having fun, exactly what Walt would have wanted.
Since the announcement of paid Genie+ I have always felt like this free itinerary builder was an afterthought, something Disney can use to try and distract people from the blatant cash grab that is the paid version. Something “nice” they are doing to “help” first time guests who are confused and overwhelmed by the self-imposed complexity of visiting the Florida parks and don’t know any better. But it is really just about giving the company something to point to and say, “Look, we didn’t just create an upcharge service, we are offering something free to help all guests.” I predict basically no one uses it but it sticks around as a “feature” in the app to save face while Disney works on ensuring Genie+ works as advertised and provides an actual (paid) value to guests.
I don’t even know if Touring Plans would have been up for it, but I don’t know why Disney didn’t try and acquire them vs. rolling their own application here. On a side…
You’ve recently alluded to how it’s frustrating that Disney doesn’t seem to care about loyal guests. I think you make a great point here, “my satisfaction would’ve been lower. It should go without saying, but that’s not good for Walt Disney World in the long-term.”
The reason my family got hooked on Disney is that because of your blog, TouringPlans, and geeking out on Disney planning I was able to put together a pretty great first trip (it was supposed to be our only trip).
We had so much fun we wanted to go back, and now that we can’t even swing going back I still comment on a Disney blog because I got hooked (probably other problems there :-)). If I hadn’t done the pre-work, and we had a horrible time because of garbage itineraries spit out by their sub par service, we would have been one and done.
Only caring about getting a family for their once and a lifetime trip, and not really caring if the experience is so outstanding they want to come back just doesn’t seem like a good long term strategy.
@Linda and off topic:
Which app do you use?
Back on topic:
We planned before COVID for our first trip, and my head is SWIMMING with all the changes. We are finally going in November (apparently with the rest of America). If it weren’t for this blog and TP, I think I wouldn’t have a single clue and our vacation would quickly turn frustrating and I’d be overwhelmed. Since I can’t get MDE to run 50% of the time without crashing, I don’t want to use any Disney IT that is not necessary.
I trust Len Testa!
Such a disappointment. I was pretty sure TouringPlans was going to come out on top in this match-up and given their great work, I’m happy that it’s still the better way to go. But the bigger picture failure in this really worries me. They really should have tried to make this lean in guests’ experience favor.
I use a completely different app for when to go and wait times and they are pretty much spot on. The jungle cruise posted 70 minutes but actually was more like 40 minutes, which my “other” app said would be the actual wait time and suggested go now. All the popular rides we went on were significantly less than posted. I asked a Disney employee why this was, and her reply was we do this because many will be dissuaded by the wait times and spread out in park and go on other rides, thus preventing bottlenecks. Rise of resistance posted 120 minutes but was more like 85 and avatar posted 70 but was more like 50. I’m not going to trust wdw app over the other app after being told that and I’m not paying for the new fast pass or premium rides. And I’m even a stockholder in Disney.
One of the few “free” things at Walt Disney World that is actually worth utilizing is Club Cool. I am not surprised the free Genie appears to be a bust as of now.
How well did the purchased Genie+ do? Is it worth the price?
This sounds horrible. I’ll go with my intuition.