food IS a theme park
Over the years, Disney World has made quite a few BIG decisions!
Like changing the park entertainment options!
They’ve introduced new offerings, updated old attractions, and tried a variety of new snack and merchandise options. Some of these decisions have been popular, but others, well…not so much. Today we’re discussing the times that Disney World missed the mark a liiiiittle bit!
It has been a wild ride since Disney Genie+ was first announced for Disney World.
©Disney
Before Disney Genie+ launched, we were told that it would be $15 per ticket, per day and that guests would only be able to book one attraction at a time. That latter part turned out to be not entirely true, as we were introduced to the world of “stacking” Genie+ reservations and the 120-minute rule. And now, all of that is changing!
Today is Disney World’s fourth-quarter earnings call, which means the company is reporting on their financial status.
Magic Kingdom
One of the topics that Disney covered in this quarter’s report was the release of Genie+. When Genie+Â was first announced, a lot of people had a negative response to it. In fact, more than half of our readers said they would not pay for Genie+ in Disney World. The new program debuted in Disney World in mid-October — so how many people are actually using it now? [Read more…]
The Disney Genie service just launched in Disney World, and now you can pay for access to Lightning Lanes (previously known as FastPass+ lanes) for qualifying rides and attractions.
A Disney Genie Pamphlet
The Genie+ service is $15 per person, per day for over 40 different attractions, but with Individual Attraction Selection (or pay-per-ride) you pay for each ride individually, and the pay-per-ride premium attractions are 8 of the most popular rides in Disney World. So how do you decide which rides to choose? Which rides are worth the extra cost? Well, we asked you, dear readers, to vote for which Individual Attraction Selection rides you would actually pay for!
Disney World’s Genie feature is officially live in the parks now.
Scanning our card to get in a Lightning Lane
Guests can buy Genie+ for $15 per ticket, per day to skip the line for most Disney World rides. But the two most popular rides in each park have a separate fee to skip the line. These rides use Individual Attraction Selection (or Pay-Per-Ride), and the fees range in price from $7 to $15 right now. So how long would the wait have to be for you to pay to skip the line? We asked our readers, and here’s what you said. [Read more…]
Since the debut of the Disney Genie in Disney World, we’ve been experimenting with all the free AND paid features of this new service.
Scanning our card to get in a Lightning Lane
We want to figure out everything there is to know about the Genie service and answer ALL the questions, and a big topic of interest is how multiple guests work with Genie+. Here’s our experience!
Disney Genie launched earlier this week, and we’ve been spending that time trying out everything we can with the service so we can help you use it to optimize your next Disney World trip.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Lightning Lane
And we’ve done our best to answer any questions you may have, both about the free version of the service (available through the My Disney Experience app) and how best to use Genie+ and the Individual Attraction Selection (aka pay-per-ride).
Earlier this week, Disney Genie officially launched in Disney World, and we’ve been checking it out all week long!
Festival of the Lion King Lightning Lane
On the official launch day, we sent 5 reporters into the parks to try out Disney Genie, Genie+, and the Individual Attraction Selections. They put the new systems through some rigorous testing and we were able to find the benefits, the flaws, and learn quite a bit along the way. Here’s what happened when we tried Disney Genie for the very first time!
UPDATE:Â This technique no longer works to its full extent. To learn about the recent changes to Disney Genie, check out this article.Â
Whew, Disney Genie has certainly brought us a LOT of news this week.
EPCOT
We’ve been breaking down the free offerings of Genie, the Genie+ Fastpass replacement system, and the not-included Individually Selected Attractions. Add in a bunch of nuanced rules about how the system works and things have gotten pretty complex. You might’ve heard that you can only select one Genie+ Lightning Lane at a time…but that’s not totally true.
Disney Genie is live in Disney World, and we’ve been learning a LOT about the new system.
Lightning Lane sign at Kali River Rapids
Now we know how to buy Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selections (pay-per-ride) reservations, and we’ve even found out how many rides we can do in one day using the new tools. We’ve learned that the Lightning Lane reservations for pay-per-ride attractions CAN sell out in Disney World (and some — like Rise of the Resistance in Disney’s Hollywood Studios — often do). But can Lightning Lane reservations sell out for regular Genie+ attractions as well? Let’s find out.
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