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

Oct 20, 2021 in "Disney Genie"

Gallery / 8 Photos
First Lightning Lane guests at Magic Kingdom October 19 2021

See all 8

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

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

Dranth28 days ago

He was asked about the past and not specifically FP or FP+ but in context, FP+ is my understanding and would match the reports of cast members on the ratios they would use to let guests through each line.

Laketravis28 days ago

Was the bolded referring to FP, FP+, or both? My point was that FP+ was prototyped and engineered to become a pay-for feature from the outset. They knew exactly what they were doing at each phase - increased availability and heightened awareness of the FP+ offering came at the expense of substantially increased SB wait times. Of course it was not sustainable but again, it was intentional. As well as eventually establishing consistent yet reasonable SB wait times regardlesss of current park load (yield management) while maintaining the perceived need to purchase an alternative. So here we are today, over ten years later where the majority of park attractions have consistent wait times no matter how lightly or heavily loaded the parks are yet the perception of needing to pay more for "quicker" access is maintained. Yup, it's been years since 4 hour wait times at WDW were featured on the national evening news. Quite the delicate balance, mission accomplished. Oh, but wait - where is that price point that causes pain and decline in revenue? Have they found it? Are they paying attention to the sacrificial revenue lambs that are suffering at the expense of LL sales? We shall see.

Dranth28 days ago

Operationally, it was a problem by the end. The vast majority of line capacity was coming through the FP lane. We had some information posted by Len just a few weeks back spelling this out: Current LL: When asked about FP era: 75-80% is ridiculous and not sustainable. I don't like an offering going from free to paid any more than anyone else but logically, it makes sense if you are a business and you need to reduce utilization. It reduces use through customer self-selection even before the tighter controls you can place on the product as well as makes stockholders happy with a new revenue stream. Paid line skips, revamping DAS access (not commenting on if this was right or wrong, just that it was done), and attendance levels more in a manageable range given park capacity have all combined to make a trip completely doable without needing a line skip on most days for most people.

Laketravis28 days ago

FP+ wasn't a problem, it actually served as the model for a revenue based system. I was given a Magic Band and a prototype app in 2012-2013 and told I could pick three rides a day in addition to pulling paper FP's over the course of several visits that year. At the last "meeting" of our focus group we were asked to rank FP+ over/under FP against various metrics and also to put a dollar amount (bracketed choices) on the value we thought FP+ brought. I of course put $0 but obviously my opinion didn't mean crap 😂.

Dranth28 days ago

Sure, technically they could have done anything but getting FP+ usage to drop to the current levels of LL would have required a massive reduction making it essentially useless without massive changes to how it worked (number of selections, re-rides, additional selections post using three, etc.). I would say it was both. FP+ was a problem that had to be fixed. It needed to change so that it wasn't eating so much capacity. Charging for a skip the line service is one way to accomplish that goal. That it also created a new revenue stream just made it the obvious best choice from a business point of view.

Purduevian30 days ago

I mean obviously Standby and Rope drop are options. However, the quantity/frequency that I am able to get on attractions will get worse if they move to a LLPP/Standby only system.

Disstevefan130 days ago

I have also see posts here saying families were able to get on attractions without having to purchase LLMP so there are ways.

Purduevian30 days ago

I sure hope not... I don't have the money for LLPP and I can typically do everything I want to do in a day with LLMP. And before someone comes in to tell me that the standby lines would be so short if they got rid of all the skip the lines I would still be able to do everything I wanted with a minimal wait... My "worst" trip to Disney was in October 2021 right before G+ launched and there was no skip the line (still had a great time, just not as good of a time). If the options were LLPP or standby online, I would visit a lot less.

Disgruntled Walt30 days ago

For sure. They've basically looked at all aspects of their parks and resorts and said, "Why aren't we profiting from _____?" Then they made it so they are.

nickys30 days ago

Hang on, is this why you think they introduced G+ rather than free FP+? That there were too many people using it that they decided it didn’t work. I think they simply decided this was a way to get some new revenue. Paid versions were already in place at DLP and at least one of Tokyo and Shanghai (possibly both) before WDW. When it was first rumoured the discussion included variations of all existing options. So they saw good sales in the other parks and wanted the revenue.

Jrb197930 days ago

I personally think they need to get rid of LLMP and just have the Premier Pass. Keep that limited.

Purduevian30 days ago

How would reducing the number of passes help the people buying LLMP? Wouldn't that just make rides sell out faster, causing people to get less lightning lanes per day, thus devaluing the upcharge? Disney for sure wants people to feel like LLMP is worth it so they buy it next time/tell their friends they should buy it.