Disney: Playing the waiting game with Genie

[Disney4me]

As a frequent visitor to Disney World, I bristled at paying for Lightning Lanes to rides. I didn’t see myself as the Genie+ kind of guy.

 

Peter Pan’s Flight is one of the Genie+ options now available at Magic Kingdom. For $15, visitors can obtain quicker entrance to select attractions using the My Disney Experience app. (© Puppie2008 | Dreamstime.com)

 

I just didn’t see myself as a Genie+ kind of guy. As a frequent visitor to Walt Disney World’s theme parks, I bristled at the paying to take express routes — dubbed Lightning Lanes — to rides I’ve done plenty of times.

So, I sat out the first few days of the launch of the service (available via My Disney Experience app), then gave it a Friday run-through. I dream of Genie+ a little differently now. Here are some moods, reactions and tips after paying my $15 at Magic Kingdom recently.

Guests wait in line at the entrance to Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Train attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on the first day of the Genie Plus pass program on Oct. 19, 2021. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

Time is money

You’re on the clock when hanging with Genie+. So it makes sense to arrive when the theme park opens and go Genie+ on a day with an early closing time. It’s a bang-for-buck thing.

The price for utilizing most Lightning Lanes is the same every day, although the cost for getting the two most-wanted attractions in each park is fluid, depending on season, day of week and perhaps Mickey’s mood.

My first angsty moment of the day was thinking My Disney Experience was hooked up to an expired credit card. I could have checked that the day before and saved a little bit of sweat and the awkwardness of getting out a card and changing the info in the middle of the park. (Following my first rule of theme parks, I already had found my shade on a bench, which seemed best for plotting out the day.)

My second angsty moment was weighing early morning wait times against what future queuing might be for popular attractions. How to save waiting in line time and money at the same time?

Normally, you have to be prepared to wait in a long line for Peter Pan’s Flight. This classic Disney dark ride has a notoriously low loading rate and it isn’t unusual to see a wait time of 60 minutes or more. (Disney)

Picking Pan

Since it wasn’t a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Magic Kingdom, I decided to hit rides I had not done in a while. Enter Peter Pan’s Flight, which typically has a line out the door (with a long indoor stretch). The available window for that was noon to 1 p.m. Done.

Remember, you can’t have more than one ride reservation at a time. So, until noon I was a free agent.

At that point, a bit after 9 a.m., I hot-footed to Frontierland, where lines were short, the app said. I opted for Splash Mountain standby because one can’t be sure when that ride will go into “The Princess and the Frog” rehab mode (No signs of that yet). Then I went next door for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Both of these waits were slightly longer than listed on the app but less than 15 minutes.

By then, the line for Pirates of the Caribbean was longer than I wanted to wait, and I drifted until the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, which fit into my theme of rides not recently ridden. I saw no posted wait time, but the line looked short.

It wasn’t. It sneakily curves around the far side of the attraction, and the queue is mostly stationary while the ride is in motion. I’m no mathematician, but the ratio of waiting to the actual experience — which lasts about 90 seconds — isn’t great.

I was punished for not consulting Genie and its posted wait times first.

A free version of the Genie+ app shows ride wait times and will suggest a routine for the day, including meals.

In Genie gear

Doh. There’s a free version of Genie on the app that shows wait times and will suggest a routine for the day, including meals. But without paying, you don’t get the old FastPass-ish experience of skipping the line.

After a fun PhotoPass experience, a snack, an in-park detour for an upcoming article, and a 20-minute wait for Under the Sea — Journey of the Little Mermaid, it was time for Pan. I went at the beginning of the window so I could get another reservation as quickly as possible. The advertised wait was 50 minutes; I waited for about five with Genie+. And, it was probably my imagination, but the ride seemed to go by quickly too.

Next, I thought I’d try to do a rolling Genie+ routine, meaning I’d take whatever I could get next as long as it was a line-cutter. This took me to Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride, and I thought it would help me exact revenge on the Magic Carpet wait in the sun. Genie+ got me on quickly; the normal wait time was 25 minutes. It did give me that old thrill of being special because I had a FastPass and folks who waited didn’t. (However, I used to hate those FastPassers when I was the waiter. Life’s funny that way.)

I considered nearby Barnstormer next, which was either a walk-on or a 30-minute wait. The app and I confused each other.

Long-running characters are still present in the recently reopened Pirates of the Caribbean at Magic Kingdom. (Dewayne Bevil / Orlando Sentinel)

On your options

Then I hit a Genie+ wall. The next reservation slots were further off than I wanted, but I signed up for Pirates of the Caribbean, which would likely be a time saver. I considered going on PeopleMover, but it was down. And the nearby Astro Orbiter, another spinning contraption I hadn’t ventured onto in years, is one of a few attractions without a Lightning Lane.

There are non-line options in the downtime, including the photo filters that are included in Genie+, and you can check the app for performances by Dapper Dans or the next character cavalcade. There’s always PhotoPass (kudos to the newish one with E-ticket prop) and eating. I walked over to look at the construction of the Tron ride.

A few attractions had shortish lines by midafternoon, but not many. Part of me thought, “I didn’t pay $15 to stand in a long line for ‘it’s a small world.’ I could do that with free Genie.” Granted, I might have been too attached to my theme.

Something I didn’t consider at all was paying even more to get individual Lightning Lanes. The Magic Kingdom rides with that option are Space Mountain and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which would add as much as $10 to my tally for the day.

Jungle Cruise or cupcakes?

It’s always a bad sign when folks are streaming out of the entrance of your next attraction. Pirates was working against me. Within a couple of minutes, I had a notification on the app. The attraction was “temporarily unavailable,” it said, and it linked to options where my Pirates chip could be cashed in, so to speak.

That included almost everything except Seven Dwarfs and Space Mountain (naturally) and Peter Pan’s Flight. I could have done popular rides such as Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise or Tomorrowland Speedway and felt OK about my $15.

There’s a lot to know about Genie. You can only hit a particular Lighting Lane once a day. You can re-ride, but you’ll have to get in line. You’re limited to two Individual Lightning Lane purchases per day. Park hopping is allowed, and there are 40 Genie+ options spread over the four parks. You can’t book an experience until 7 a.m. on the day of the visit. It’s also good to know the actual names of attractions. On the app’s tip board, the choices are alphabetical, so looking for Wild Tea Party under T for teacups doesn’t work.

Could I have done better? For sure, with a better plan going in, with a focus on what ride I definitely wanted most and the ability to linger longer. But I also could have had two cupcakes for that price and felt less pressure to check off boxes.

Your results may vary.

 

Dewayne Bevil

Orlando Sentinel