Disney Genie takeaways, first impressions, and early strategies from the first day of operation at Walt Disney World

Oct 20, 2021 in "Disney Genie"

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First Lightning Lane guests at Magic Kingdom October 19 2021

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Posted: Wednesday October 20, 2021 8:54am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

After spending the first day with Disney Genie at Walt Disney World, we have some early takeaways and strategies to help prepare you for using Disney's new trip planning and ride reservation system.

Guests using the Lightning Lane at it's a small world

Short waits in Lightning Lanes, at Least for Now

Guests entering the Lightning Lane at Pirates of the Caribbean

Lightning Lane wait times are short. There are currently only a limited number of guests using Genie+ and Individual Attraction purchases, so the Lightning Lane moves you to the front of the line in a matter of minutes, significantly quicker than the old FastPass+ queues. With attractions like Millennium Falcon Smugglers run where you may see a 60 minute standby wait time, you are likely able to cut that to just a couple of minutes with the Genie+ Lightning Lane. As with FastPass+, we expect to see these waits increase as awareness of Genie+ increases and more guests use the Lightning Lane.

Early Strategies to Maximize Genie+

Slinky Dog Dash at Disney's Hollywood Studios has so far been the most in-demand Genie+ selection, and soon after the 7am opening of reservations, availability shifted to the afternoon.

An emerging strategy would appear to be to make a Slinky Dog Dash Genie+ reservation at 7am, and to then make a second selection at the earliest opportunity, 2 hours after a 9am park opening at 11am. Learn more about making subsequent Genie+ reservations.

In most cases, Genie+ selections have been available within a couple of hours, and availability remained into the evening hours.

The only Individual Attraction purchase to sell-out has been Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Most Individual Attraction purchases not included with Genie+ were available for almost immediate rides.

Smooth Roll Out of Disney Genie

So far, there have been no significant issues with the My Disney Experience app, and the rollout of Disney Genie appears to have gone according to plan. The app itself is fairly robust. We encountered a couple of random crashes and there are a few bugs, particularly when planning for multiple parks in a hopper scenario. But on the whole, My Disney Experience is holding together and not getting in the way of using the system.

The only significant hitch that we are aware of was an extended downtime of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which led to guests asking for refunds for their Individual Attraction purchase. Disney Genie terms and conditions of use say no refunds will be given, but guests were able to obtain a refund of sorts in the form of a Disney gift card. With the frequent breakdowns at Rise of the Resistance, this may become a common scenario, so we will have to wait and see how Disney plans to manage that scenario.

Star Wars Rise of the Resistance experienced a lengthy downtime leading to guests asking for a refund of their $15 Individual Attraction purchase

Phone Use Goes Up, and Battery Life Takes a Hit

With Disney Genie, you will spend more time on your phone and may find high levels of battery drain as you spend more time using My Disney Experience than ever before. We went through 60% of an iPhone 13 Pro during our testing in 4 hours at Magic Kingdom. A full charge in the morning is essential, and you will likely need a charger to top up the battery along the way. Losing contact with My Disney Experience would be a major roadblock to your day of using Disney Genie.

Good News for Guests Not Using Genie+

Currently, the vast majority of guests are using standby lines only. So far, we have not seen any significant impacts to standby wait times due to the opening of Lightning Lanes.

Use of Lightning Lane at Space Mountain has been minimal - good news for guests not wishing to pay to ride

Still too Early to Draw Any Conclusions

A common site on day 1, with low guest awareness of Genie, Lightning Lanes often sat empty

Any conclusions about wait times, standby lines, or Lightning Lanes need to wait until more guests are aware of Disney Genie+ and during busier days in the parks. The upcoming holiday period around Thanksgiving will be a good indicator of the true impact of Lightning Lanes - parks will be busy, and many more guests will be aware of Genie+ and strategies.

Learn More about Disney Genie, Genie+ and Lightning Lanes

Learn more about Disney Genie from our recent articles, including a Disney Genie FAQ, and Genie discussion on the WDWMAGIC Forums.

Discuss on the Forums

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Purduevian16 hours ago

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/lightning-lane-drop-times.984387/ This is what I've come up with so far (haven't looked in awhile, maybe I'll check again soon). If you are willing to pay, people have stated touring plans has a list as well. If you do pay for touring plans, don't share any of the information that is behind the payway! Good luck!

DisneyCane16 hours ago

My favorite thing to do with legacy FP, was to start the day in Epcot and, right before we left around 11:30, grabbed another TT FP with something like a 6:25 to 7:25 return time. Then go to another park and return to Epcot in the evening and get a "bonus" ride of TT with barely any wait. Those were the good ole days! With FP strategy we once took my sister-in-law to WDW for a single day and were able to ride all of the headliners at all 4 parks on a moderately crowded day.

nickys17 hours ago

You can but you will have the same restrictions as if you’d pre-booked them. Same park, little overlapping etc. A strategy for just booking one would be a very early return time so that once you tapped in you could then book any tiers in any park.

osian21 hours ago

Quick question - we know you can have three rolling LLs with MP, but you can only book a new one when you've used one up. So can you only get three rolling LLs if you've booked your three in advance? For example, if you've only booked one in advance then on the day when you're in the park can you book another two before you've used the first one?

arich3523 hours ago

Are there known drop times for Epcot rides day off?

wdisney90001 day ago

In Legacy FP days my brother and I did the same at Epcot rope drop (sans breakfast at Sunshine Seasons). We'd average 2 or 3 rides on TT and Soarin, SSE and usually 1 or 2 rides on El Rio Del Tiempo (now Gran Fiesta Tour) and head out of the park after getting lunch. And we loved getting an extra FP each before getting lunch (usually at Electric Umbrella) and handing them to a random couple on our way out.

MickeyLuv'r1 day ago

Right, and since we don't know when our BG will be called, and we have so little control over our LL return times, WDW has to allow a significant amount of grace. The day I was there Tiana's had some down time, so when it reopened we got in line, but we also had LL passes for 3 other rides. When we got in line for Tiana, according to the posted wait, we should have been okay to use our next LL, but then Tiana's took so stinking long, that we missed our next LL window entirely (SpaceMtn.?) By the time we got off Tiana's, we were well into the time window of our NEXT LL, which I think was Pirates, so we used Pirates first. It was afternoon in August, so plenty hot outside, and we had planned to take an afternoon break. Crossing the park twice wasn't going to happen. This is just one example when something beyond our control caused us to miss a LL window entirely. Early on, I tried to change some of the LL times, but it isn't feasible because there's a dearth of availability.

MickeyLuv'r1 day ago

I don't really see how they can close the loophole of allowing late LL use, at least not while: 1. they are still using BG 2. rides are unreliable 3. TS meal lengths are variable in a way that is unpredictable 4. we don't control our LL times. When booking the 3 initial passes, users don't get to choose return times, they are assigned. users are allowed to shuffle the times, and you can make them a bit later if you want, but as soon as you try to change them MDE shuffles the return times in a way that is somewhat random, and gives you later/worse return times with every shuffle. Once you are in the parks, you have no control over return times. Again, users can refresh, but the times assigned are random. The earliest time I could get for Tiana's was 3:30pm, and that was booking LL's exactly at 7am at 7days out. I would have much preferred an earlier time. I really wanted to be out of MK. After agreeing, I attempted (7days out at 7:01am) to refresh for an earlier pass, and all I got was much worse times, like 7:45pm, and even late PM options dried up within a few minutes.

MisterPenguin2 days ago

FP and Genie+ has always been 5 minutes early and 15 minutes late. The same for VQs and ILL. EXCEPT... GotG:CR stopped caring how late you were for ILL or VQ. 2 hours. 5 hours. They didn't care. Even if other VQ rides did care. Especially TRON, which was super strict. Unless you started to cry in front of the CM. Now?!... who knows. It's cats and dogs living together.

co100642 days ago

Used the new system today at DHS and have surprisingly been able to redeem all the multi-pass rides by now (1:45pm local time). I definitely prefer this to system to Genie+, but I may have had a different experience if I was staying off-property.

Purduevian2 days ago

Gottcha, I did a quick google search and lots of planning sites give the 15 mins, but I couldn't see anything on it from Disney. So: Officially official: Be on time Unofficially official: 15 min grace period In practice: 2 hour grace period Reality: Unlimited grace period at CM discretion

nickys2 days ago

That’s what CMs will tell you. Or what Plan Disney might say. 😁

Purduevian2 days ago

What does "Officially" even mean then if the light turns green after 2 hours?

nickys2 days ago

Officially it’s a 15 minute grace period. In practice though, the 2 hr grace period after the end time was in effect for G+ and is still in effect for LLs. And yes, the light turns green.