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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Purduevian6 days ago

Learned a new G+ tip the other day and I thought I would share. If you are refreshing looking for a better time on a single ride... Don't pull down to refresh then click the ride once you see a better time come up. Often times you will be too slow and someone else will have gotten that better time. Instead of refreshing that main page, simply click the ride on whatever time it does to move on to the confirmation screen. The time will automatically shift to the latest time available (which might be different that the tip board screen). If it is not the time you want, click back and do it again. This way if you see a time, you are holding that time as soon as you see it.

allgiggles7 days ago

I've seen many people say they don't like having to be on their phone all day. I didn't experience that. I'd book a LL, set an alarm for a few minutes before the next booking time, and then put my phone away. Lather, rinse, repeat. I don't remember spending more than about 5 (*maybe* 10) minutes on my phone every time I was scheduling another LL. My husband spent *way* more time than that on his phone and he didn't schedule *any* LLs. It was no worse than it was with FP+. And it sure beats having to walk to the ride you wanted to ride to get a FP for it or walking to a kiosk and standing in line to schedule a FP+ before you could do it on the app. I'd venture to guess that I spent more time in the FP/FP+ kiosk days walking back and forth across the parks to get the rides we wanted compared to the amount of time I was on my phone for G+. At least I can parallel process when using my phone -- doing the scheduling while eating a snack or meal or while standing in line somewhere.

GhostHost10007 days ago

Well I’ve had decent luck using it as well after learning the tricks but I spend an enormous time on my phone all day playing the game which I don’t like

allgiggles7 days ago

Didn't need fixing. I'm ok paying for it, I just don't want it to be $35/day. I felt like $15-20 was a good price. We were FP+ power users, but we had even better success with G+/ILL.

GhostHost10007 days ago

Fixed your post

allgiggles7 days ago

Oh how I wish these would be the prices when we're there next month.

DCBaker7 days ago

Here's a look at pricing for Genie+ today - the last time prices were at this level was February 25, 2024.

Splash4eva11 days ago

& to pre pay before the trip for its entirety

Fido Chuckwagon11 days ago

Lol, how I long for the days when it was $15…

capndave11 days ago

Doesn't include the more popular attractions. You have to pay even more to access the lightening lane per ride for those attractions. Total money grab! Disney is pricing themselves out of existence .