Genie+ Revisited

My previous review of Genie+ was in reaction to my experience when we visited in February during one of the busiest times of the year. In July, we ventured to Disney World again, but with lower crowd levels I found the experience notably different. Also, on our previous trip Runaway Railroad, Frozen Ever After, Remy’s, and Space Mountain had all been Individual Lightning Lane. Now, these rides are permanently part of Genie+, increasing the options for use in each park. That combined with the lower crowd levels made the product feel much better than last time. So what really changed?

More Availability

This was most noticeable at Hollywood Studios. Previously, we found that all options for Slinky Dog, Millennium Falcon, Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, and Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster were completely gone by 11 a.m. On our July trip spots for most of these rides could be found up until 4 p.m. with just Slinky Dog and Tower of Terror running out before that.

More “Instant Lightning Lanes”

With the increased availability it was very common to find spots available within the next ten minutes for many rides. This has two net effects:

1. You’re able to get many more Lightning Lanes (LL) in during the day since you can book immediately if you use your last LL before the normal 2 hour wait window.

2. You’re able to be more spontaneous. Rather than having a list of rides you’re planning out one after the other you can pick what you want to do next, snag the LL, and head there. It made the system much better and increased its value.

Stacking Hard, But Not Needed

Stacking involves snagging a bunch of LL reservations for later in the day, one after another. We often do a midday break and during that time we will snag LLs for the evening. On this trip, because LL times were so immediate, we couldn’t stack for the evening because the times were never late enough.

Overall, I thought the product really shined with the more moderate crowd levels. It’s also worth noting that for both Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes we didn’t have any of the app glitches we saw last time. That may just be because of less users, but hopefully it’s due to Disney improving the app.

While I still feel Genie+ is far too easy to be a bad bet for the uneducated, for those that know how to use it well it can save more time than the old Fastpass system. My biggest concern is that it will see a price increase to celebrate its one year anniversary. Seeing ILL prices for Guardians creeping past $15 doesn’t bode well for the Genie+ price tag.

— Dave