Disney Genie Is Now Live Post Your Hints and Tips

[Drewski77]

As someone who goes to Disneyland once or maybe twice per year at most, paying $20 for Genie+ is an easy decision.

Admission costs are so high to begin withthat the extra $20 makes the investment on the first $100+ far more worth it to us.

As now we get many rides with little wait, compared with really only having bearable wait times at rope drop and end of the night.

Sure, I wish MaxPass was still available, but I’ll take Genie+ for $20 and enjoy the park much more than I would without it.

 

[DLRExpert]

Side news Rise closing at 9pm on Friday instead of 8 or 830pm. No ILL available but stand by line at 845 is 45 minutes.

 

[87disney]

Here today and comparing to our visit 11/27, I DO notice a negative impact on standby lines (and posted wait accuracy). Especially in DCA, the standby lines are crawling. The lines look and are physically shorter than they were two weeks ago, but they are not moving nearly as well. My waits on this side have all been 15-30 minutes longer than the posted wait. Still not enough to make me fork over $20 unless I’m with people who aren’t Magic Key holders and don’t visit regularly…

^ This - we were at the parks since Tuesday this week, and stand by was miserable today when genie really hit its stride (it had no effect on Thursday). They have gone from overestimated wait times to now being underestimated by 10 - 15 minutes on average today . Posted 45 minutes wait on Guardians really took an hour. Lines have gone back from a good steady flow to long pauses of standing in one place. We may opt for genie the next visit . Sad.

 

[poptart90]

^ This - we were at the parks since Tuesday this week, and stand by was miserable today when genie really hit its stride (it had no effect on Thursday). They have gone from overestimated wait times to now being underestimated by 10 - 15 minutes on average today . Posted 45 minutes wait on Guardians really took an hour. Lines have gone back from a good steady flow to long pauses of standing in one place. We may opt for genie the next visit . Sad.

I posted this in another thread. A MUST WATCH

Wow. Exactly as the video referenced describes. The basic “FastPass to standby” ratio was 4 to 1. Four FP on to one Standby guest when it was slow. But it was always at the discretion of the CM at the merge point.

Wondering if the directive to drive Genie+ and ILLs will result in the merge CM doing what the video above describes-which can be far worse than a 4 to 1 ratio. No shade on the CMs here. They are simply doing what they are told. But what a great way to drive the Genie+ upsell, right? Stall the standby line at every opportunity.

IMO, this will be the key element to watch. The Standby line wait times.

The video above is long but give it a chance, if you’re interested. My non-DISer DH watched it with me and was fascinated! Lol

 

[smallbutmighty]

So just to clarify, you need park reservations + tickets to buy Genie + ??

Then after you have that, you have to wait until the very day you're entering the park to actually make the reservations ?

No complaints, I'm just trying to understand. The walls of text and concepts I'm not familiar with are very overwhelming to me.
For reference, we're not local, and only visiting once next May. I just don't want to get screwed over by waiting "too long" Scared.

 

[BadPinkTink]

So just to clarify, you need park reservations + tickets to buy Genie + ??

Correct.

1. Buy tickets
2. Make Park Reservation
3. Use Free Genie+ to input rides, attractions and dining preferences before your visit

For single or multi day one park per day or single or multi day park hopper tickets you can buy Genie+ in advance for length of ticket
OR
For single or multi day one park per day or single or multi day park hopper tickets you can buy Genie+ at midnight for day off park visit, one day at a time

 

[JC1984]

Wow. Exactly as the video referenced describes. The basic “FastPass to standby” ratio was 4 to 1. Four FP on to one Standby guest when it was slow. But it was always at the discretion of the CM at the merge point.

Wondering if the directive to drive Genie+ and ILLs will result in the merge CM doing what the video above describes-which can be far worse than a 4 to 1 ratio. No shade on the CMs here. They are simply doing what they are told. But what a great way to drive the Genie+ upsell, right? Stall the standby line at every opportunity.

IMO, this will be the key element to watch. The Standby line wait times.

The video above is long but give it a chance, if you’re interested. My non-DISer DH watched it with me and was fascinated! Lol

Yes it is long but the research into it was top notch. I’ve watched it 3 times now. I agree with the producer I think it is a way for Disney to meet in the middle with consumer I don’t think it is a perfect system but I think they are trying to figure out the line issues. The one thing I found interesting was the fact Imagineering never liked the idea of Magic Bands and Fastpass. The whole push was brought on by the operations department.

 

[bcassidy]

1. Buy tickets
2. Make Park Reservation
3. Use Free Genie+ to input rides, attractions and dining preferences before your visit

I wish that worked for me. I did steps 1 & 2, but when I try to use the free Genie service, I get, "Not Quite Ready to Craft Your Day" and Disney tech support had me try a few things, but still no joy. My genie is stuck in the bottle.

 

[BadPinkTink]

I wish that worked for me. I did steps 1 & 2, but when I try to use the free Genie service, I get, "Not Quite Ready to Craft Your Day" and Disney tech support had me try a few things, but still no joy. My genie is stuck in the bottle.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe its your phone, that the phone operating system is not new enough to support the Genie features. This happened to me in 2019. I could access the Disneyland App but I could not use the Play Disney Disney App as my phone was an old make / model and did not have the updated operating system.

 

[bcassidy]

The only thing I can think of is that maybe its your phone, that the phone operating system is not new enough to support the Genie features. This happened to me in 2019. I could access the Disneyland App but I could not use the Play Disney Disney App as my phone was an old make / model and did not have the updated operating system.

I tried it on three different iPhone 12 Pro phones and two iPads all running the latest iOS.

 

[disneycasey2020]

Mine is the same way. I thought I read somewhere it will work after midnight the night before your day for genie and then genie plus you have to be in the park.

 

[Wesley815]

The one thing I found interesting was the fact Imagineering never liked the idea of Magic Bands and Fastpass. The whole push was brought on by the operations department.

....and only office level ops management, NOT guest facing hourly / day to day in park positions.

Having worked Merge point in attractions many times, it's one of the toughest spots to be in with 99% of standby line blaming and hating every move you make. Sadly most leads and managers will hide out and never check on Merge CM's.

It's not physically demanding, just holding back standby line as hundreds and hundreds of Fast Pass run by laughing and smiling isn't exactly easy.

 

[JC1984]

....and only office level ops management, NOT guest facing hourly / day to day in park positions.

Having worked Merge point in attractions many times, it's one of the toughest spots to be in with 99.9% of standby line blaming and hating every move you make. Sadly most leads and managers will hide out and never check out Merge CM's.

Luckily when I worked attractions the only attraction I worked was DLRR and never dealt with that crap. Better yet is when I went to Zoo Crew and didn’t have to worry about lines ever again.

 

[JC1984]

So for those of you all about the Genie+ is it in your opinion worth it for DCA? We are using our DL trip as a warm up for WDW with the kids? I am about 90% sold of using it for DL but really on the fence about DCA. Granted I stood in regular lines for 17 years so I am not even too sure about it for DL the days we are going. Thoughts? Touring Plans is giving our DL day a 2/10 and DCA day a 3/10. I am really leaning to skipping G+ all together and using the LL$ for RoTR if the line is over 60 minutes. Also wondering if anyone on here has done a side to side comparison of TP vs G+ at DLR in the last few days? TP did one at WDW but as we know that is a different monster.

 

[althepostman]

^ This - we were at the parks since Tuesday this week, and stand by was miserable today when genie really hit its stride (it had no effect on Thursday). They have gone from overestimated wait times to now being underestimated by 10 - 15 minutes on average today . Posted 45 minutes wait on Guardians really took an hour. Lines have gone back from a good steady flow to long pauses of standing in one place. We may opt for genie the next visit . Sad.

According to the guest generated wait times on the Touring plans app, all the Disney posted wait times for DCA attractions are inflated by 15-30 minutes and DL attractions by 5-10 mins today.

Touring plans app has always been the most accurate with actual times IMO.

 

[DonnerB]

According to the guest generated wait times on the Touring plans app, all the Disney posted wait times for DCA attractions are inflated by 15-30 minutes and DL attractions by 5-10 mins today.

Touring plans app has always been the most accurate with actual times IMO.

I was also using TP yesterday. Their estimates were better, but still off.

 

[cdoc29]

I have the feeling, this is the point. If I could go more than once a year I wouldn't care for G+ either. But as an international traveler, one really has to try to max out the days you have to get the most out of your visit imo. And that should help out with it I think, if not everyone buys it then it works best for those that do. At least in theory.

This is exactly why we will be using MaxPass.

We are from the east coast making our second trip out to Disneyland. DS is a huge Spiderman fan so WDW would not cut it for us. We got Moblie MaxPass with our tickets last time and hardly used it as the crowds were very low the week we visited. This time I am expecting the crowds to be higher (first week of Jan) and even though we are there for 5 days I plan on getting it but will play it day to day to see how things go. I am glad they only allow one time for ILL otherwise I would be shelling out $14+ an hour for Webslingers. So far looking at the how it has been working I expect we will rope drop (from the east coast and will be up early anyways) hit a few rides and then start doing repeats with the Genie Plus as the crowds start to build.

 

[bcassidy]

Mine is the same way. I thought I read somewhere it will work after midnight the night before your day for genie and then genie plus you have to be in the park.

Well according to Disney support, the free portion is supposed to work as soon as you have tickets and reservations so that you can start planning.

 

[bcassidy]

Well according to Disney support, the free portion is supposed to work as soon as you have tickets and reservations so that you can start planning.

I just kept trying and it finally started working as advertised. I did nothing different; it just started working. I really like that you can choose your favorite rides and they show at the top of the Tip Board so you don't have to scroll as much. Now the question is to go + or not to go +.

 

[dieumeye]

Got Genie+ today and also did ILL$ for Rise and RSR. Honestly, it worked really well. As a frequent visitor, it’s not something I’m going to get every visit (especially that $20 Rise ILL) but if I am ever doing a ride focused visit in the future, I probably would buy Genie+. Some observations:

-You can scan into an attraction five minutes early, just like the old MaxPass system.

-If you are park hopping, you can buy a 1 PM ILL selection for the other park without waiting for the attraction return time to hit 1 PM. Example: At noon, I was in Disneyland and the RSR return time was 12:15. I tried to buy it just to see what would happen. It offered a 12:55p RSR return time, saying “time changed due to park hopping“. This is great so you don’t have to “stalk“ the app to try to buy an ILL for 1 PM.

-I was pleased with the short waits after the merge points. Especially Space Mtn (no line inside), GotG (no line in the boiler room after pre show), and Rise (no line after pre-shows). Didn’t get to test Indy since it was down all morning.

-App layout is weird. “Tip Board” is where all the attractions you’ve selected for your day show up. “My Day” only shows the current reservations you have along with random recommendations. For mobile order it was easiest to just go to the regular Order Food area in the app because Genie wouldn’t necessarily show all available dining locations.

-There’s a catch 22 with Genie+, and this was true with MaxPass as well, but now that it’s a paid service and you can only ride each attraction once, it’s something I consider more carefully. The “catch” is that Genie+ is most EFFICIENT when you can get an immediate return time (but that’s also when standby lines are short anyway), and it offers the most VALUE when standby lines are longest (but that’s when LL return times are the farthest out). So do you burn your LLs when lines are 20 minutes or less just to save a few minutes? Or do you wait to use them when lines are long even if that means you’ll have longer stretches between reservations? It’s a bummer to be shut out of the system for two hours. I know that’s how FastPass was, but that was free! Feels different having paid for it.

-The Genie is kinda dumb. It kept recommending things I couldn’t do. For example, I had said I wanted to go to Oga’s so it kept telling me to book a reservation even though none were available. Also, at 2:30 it recommended I go on Luigi’s… even though it was closed. Lots of that kind of stuff.

-There’s a somewhat hidden feature called Audio Tales that are short audio clips that tell behind the scenes info about different areas all over the park. I listened to a few and they were pretty interesting. You could make a decent couple hours strolling around the park listening to them all. Kind of like your own private DL history tour.