Y’all should do a compare video.. see how each one goes in a day, 1 person just goes with the flow, 1 persons does genie, 1 person does lightning lane. All 3 of y’all in the same park on the same day.
We can try that soon. I already can say Lightning wins followed by plan your own day and Genie last, unless you are in the park from morning to night and really take advantage of the forecasted waits and if Disney can get them right.
@@TheDIS I would like to see a similar scenerio, whereas the three try Genie and not but only for the premium rides. I just priced them out for this weekend and to do all would come to $89 per person. Of course you couldn't do all but pick a few of the expensive ones and decide is this up charge is worth it.
@@TheDIS yeah, I think it would still be really useful at least to get a sense of how much better Genie+ Lightning is to see if it worth the price. There is a big difference between "better" and "$15 per person better"
This was honestly about how I expected. For those that go once a year, it’d be easier just to go to the long wait attractions in the morning and evening and save the less popular attractions for mid day.
That is what my family does. We only visit every other year. We rope drop the most popular rides and do well with the others. I'm not very worried about lines at MK. It is HS that I am concerned about, but I think we'll be fine without Genie +.
that is literally the exact strategy that works regardless of genie, genie+, or even the original fastpass. hit popular ones in morning, do less popular ones or take a break mid day, then come back in late afternoon/evening and hit big ones again.
As a first go, seems like Genie needs to be sent back to school! Maybe even remedial classes... I would like to see a full day using only free Genie, and a full day with Genie+. And one for each park. It's a lot, but would be veryyyyy interesting to see tested 👀
I saw a vlog of people who did that at Hollywood Studios-the person who didn't pay for it, did better, but he did not use the plan set up by Genie either. This same person did a similar test as to what Craig is doing here and had the same experience-felt like it gave him odd choices.
Dude, so close! Great idea-wish you’d had a colleague w you who followed genie while you used your common sense snd intuition to truly make your point :-)
Touring plans have done a bunch of head to head's (including their optimized plans vs. Pay for everything) plus a couple of full days trying to do what Genie tells you (although anyone with any Disney knowledge would give up on Genie pretty quick IMO).
This didn’t tell us anything, he ignored everything it suggested. The people that actually tested by listening to it have all been pretty complementary.
@@liquidwombat touring plans did a side-by-side comparison and agreed with Craig. It appears the Genie suggests what would be most magical for Disney :) not the customer. It suggests a lot of shows, stopping for snacks and coffee...while not bad things, these activities increase Disney revenue. Additionally it tends to guide you to purchase passes. For the money, I'll choose Touring Plans. It's a yearlong subscription and you only need one per family. I love Disney but am very disappointed in this latest attempt to raise revenue by paying for something that used to be free....
I've watched several bloggers doing a gentle rebellion against Genie Plus. They all agreed that it was a lot of bouncing around between lands and suggestions were for the lesser used rides. Thanks for doing that Craig!
@@stevenphillips5323 yeah you can't go on either one of those channels and be even mildly critical of anything Disney's without the mouse ear worshipers jumping on you. Don't get me wrong I love the videos that Molly, Quincy etc over at AllEars put out but I take their "reviews" with a grain of salt.
@@marcschubert139 Oh man, that sounds really annoying. People need to chill. Things are going to be bad sometimes or not work properly, and there needs to be criticism in order for it to get better!
I do like an honest video. Personally I thought you sounded overly negative on certain things (like “over-posted” wait times). Like dude, “smile”; but that aside, I think yours and AllEars still arrived at the same conclusion. Freenie (Free Genie) offers a large handful of dumb suggestions and all in all, you need to have some park savvy to make your own common sense judgments and get back the time that Freenie would’ve otherwise wasted.
This is a great decision that you will not regret. Universal is expanding and will become the park of first choice in the next five years. Universal is 1/2 the cost of Disney at this point. I hold AP's to WDW and Universal. I love them both but the future of Universal excites me the most.
Yes we bought annual passes to Uni for the first time and are so glad we did. It seems like Uni and WDW are moving into totally opposite directions, with Uni trying to be financially accessible to most economic levels ( with the building more affordable Surf Side resort), while WDW is becoming exclusive by catering only to wealthy guest who can afford $1200 per night per person to stay at the new Star Wars hotel, The trending contrast between the two companies tells a very different narrative. Just my observation
I agree with you, that was my first concern was whether it would recommend rides across the park. I walk thru once either clockwise or counterclockwise and only once. Will see this December when I go to Epcot.
If I even look at Disney Genie, I will not take their advice. I will just use it to check wait times. My family no longer criss crosses the park. Too tiring.
What’s next Genie? Answer: Carousel Where’s lunch Genie? Answer: Cosmic Ray’s for the best burger ever…then back to the Carousel What now Genie? Answer: Haunted Mansion 50 min wait. You’re welcome 😉 Two hours later… Genie’s Final suggestion for the day: Carousel 🎠 Anything “free” from Disney is usually crap lol 😆
I was just there 3 weeks ago and the wait times have increased substantially. As far as the Genie, I can see that it seems to ignore your requests and pushes you toward the slower wait rides. I agree that at this point it's not really helpful. I think when we come back in January we'll just wing-it like we always have. Thanks for taking the time to show us how it works under real-world use!
Thanks for the review. It was very en”lightening”.Sad to see that the Stand “By” lanes have once again become the stand “Still” lanes. I guess we all knew the time without “help” and line management that occurred between Fastpass and Genie+ was too good to last. Thanks again.
My husband and I are retired and visit Disneyland a couple of times a month. Single rider is our go to on Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Radiator Springs Racers, Indiana Jones and many more. We can make quick work of some great rides in very little time. Fingers crosed Genie Plus does not affect this great feature. Two thumbs up!
My idea for a video is that two of you follow the exact same itinerary in which one of you has Genie+ and the other is just free styling it. That would be interesting to see.
2010 • WDW, did 4 parks, no magic bands, just paper fast pass, Managed to ride everything at least 2-4 times during our stay. This is not a vacation spending your day on a phone screen. The most magical place on Earth has lost it's magic....terrible experience....sad to see it happen.
Craig, any idea why attractions you didn't select appear in the "My Day" section? For example, you didn't choose the carrousel, but it kept coming up as a suggestion. What's up with that?
As we were concerned with and many others have pointed out, I think part of the app is truly to drive crowds where they want. I’m sure there’s plenty of people who will see something like the Carrousel selection and actually follow it. If it’s truly about getting you to do what you want, they need to add a button saying I’m not interested and also a button that allows you to check off what you’ve done so it knows what to suggest further down the line without having to go back to edit your day.
I really don’t think any kind of technology like this will beat out a knowledgeable Disney park guest. There are too many factors not accounted for especially the amount of people who don’t want to be looking at their phones all day while they’re in the park.
I agree. My family goes every other year but have been visiting for many years. We kind of have a system worked out so are not too worried about not using Genie +.
I remember when I was a kid 20+ years ago and my mother had a book to help give a basic idea of anything new when we'd go. She'd plan out things in a vague way. We knew what we wanted to see that was new, older things, etc. We'd all get aggravated but things worked fine. This makes me sound dated but I can go to amusement parks across the country without needing a paid for daily app portion and still have a good time. Shrug. Life is what you make of it.
Right? At the beginning of 2020 pre-pandemic I went on a trip with 5 adults in which we bought tickets kind of last minute and stayed off property so we weren’t even able to get fast passes for a lot of major rides. I still did my research and got to the park early every day. We still were able to ride everything we wanted (including rise of the resistance) and the only two wait times longer than an hour were Runaway Railway (because it opened that week) and Flight of Passage which we actually rode twice, the second time with a short wait later in the day. I think a lot of people forget that Disney is supposed to be a fun vacation not a challenge to “do it all”. Simply narrowing down the things you want to do and taking the time to enjoy the people you are there with and the atmosphere of it all makes for a good experience. It’s all about mindset. Any kind of “paid” fast pass option just introduces scarcity and exclusivity to make people panic buy when it hasn’t been shown to greatly improve one’s experience.
It will be interesting to see if it gets " smarter" about recommendations. Will the free version improve at moving the crowds around the park and make better recommendations, or will it continue to keep making the same ones? Is it worth the money to get the Genie + with lightening lanes, will the recommendations improve if you spend the extra $$$. Great video Craig...thanks for showing us a more "realistic" view than other influencers have.
Not a great test of the Genie app if you ignore it completely. However, I suspect Craig was right - what Genie was saying just didn't make sense. Touring Plans have done a good video comparing their app against Genie, which shows that the Genie app is seriously flawed for optimising rides you want to do. I was worried that the Genie app might destroy the Touring Plans business model - from what I've seen so far, not a chance!
That's what I was thinking too. I thought the whole point of his review was to follow the Genie? Granted, it probably would have taken longer than expected, but at least we'd know for sure?
Does Genie ask if guests followed its suggestions, or whether or not guests found them to be helpful? Curious to see if/how the recommendations improve as it gets more data.
In other words, Disney is royally screwing up by taking away Fast Passes. I go for 4 days in mid December. This will decide if I sell my Disney Vacation Club or not. I dont see keeping it to wait in lines. FastPasses worked because you chose what rides you absolutely had to ride. There shouldnt be another charge for “lightning lanes.”
I got back a week ago and am seriously considering selling. The parks were extremely crowded (even at Boo Bash for 140 bucks), there were several things wrong with the room, cast members were openly complaining, the park reservation system devalues park hopping, and paying for fast passes is just a slap in the face.
I liked that you showed what the genie screen looked like on your phone. I was excited to get the update. But my phone is out of date and wont support the new features. I am really bummed out about it. So I steered clear of most of the news about this. I figured I would just check in to see what Craig was up to and I am glad I did!
The only thing I would say, Craig, is even a well optimized plan (like with Touring Plans) might have you wait in a long line that isn't going to get lower (e.g. Haunted Mansion during Halloween season). What is odd is that they were prioritizing THAT one when so many others you selected never made it on their plan for you at all. Also you can't cap your end time so they make weird choices.
Did it seem like the people using the lightning lane got straight on? I have waited in the FastPass line on Space Mountain for 15-20 minutes before (and really most fastpass lines still had some waiting).
I agree with not using Genie to plan your day. At WDW this week and we consistently found the posted wait times inflated by nearly double. Genie + has its own set of issues as well. Agree with the standby lines dragging since LL started. They don't go as slow as when FP+ was fully running, but as more people purchase LL, I suspect it will.
Agree to add a feature not interested or ignore an attraction . Anything changed for food listing ? Can you search by food item- like where to find churros?
Genie is basically for those that have never been to the parks. It would be good for the programers to try to cluster rides to your location and move in a pattern so you aren’t zigzagging the park.
Dude, so close! Great idea-wish you’d told us your choices at the top of the vid and wish you had a colleague w you who followed genie while you used your common sense snd intuition to truly make your point :-)
So genie plus seems like it would make sense for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood studios but what about animal Kingdom and Epcot? I feel like a better use of the $15 per person in Epcot would be to buy ratatouille and just do standby
Craig: I AM GOING TO LET DISNEY GENIE GUIDE MY DAY!!1!! Also Craig: I am not going to do what Disney Genie tells me to do.... Ok then, I guess there is nothing to learn here about the Genie service. Just an experienced park-goer doing what they would normally do.
If you want to see someone who really did exactly as told (including the Swiss Family Treehouse at 10 am!) check out Touring Plans' test. It was really bad.
I really did intend to, but I couldn’t accomplish what I wanted in the time span I wanted had I followed it. I would’ve went on Buzz Lightyear, Haunted Mansion and the Carousel. That’s not looking at what I’m interested in experiencing so you are correct, there’s nothing new to learn except Genie doesn’t work.
Like, their tester was given Jungle Cruise, Swiss Family Treehouse, Tiki Room, Magic Carpets, and Tom Sawyer first thing in the AM. The only thing they said they were interested in in that entire list was Jungle Cruise.
We appreciate your honest appraisal of the free Genie system. Doesn’t sound like it’s up to much, but it is early days, so I’ll keep an eye on reviews to see if it improves. I hate that people are basically forced into buying the + version then find themselves in a huge line anyway. This new system isn’t looking that great to me.
Thanks for the review, great information for reference. It would be really interesting to see if 2 people had the same wishlist and 1 used genie and the other had genie+. How much more would get done with genie+?
It'd be even better if they did it that challenge in small groups and not as single riders. Several videos that attempted this cheesed out by having the non-Genie guy hit single-rider queues, which most people visiting Disney don't use (unless it's an immediate walk-on) because they want to ride together.
Can you go again Craig, and take Ryno with you? Would love a video where you both set up the same Genie day but one of you follows it to the letter and the other one of you diverts whenever they think they should. Then compare the two days you had.
What happened to you is exactly what Touring Plans experienced. I'm passing on all this Genie/Lightning Lane nonsense. It's just a way to short change Disney guests. Who I feel really bad for are the inexperience and those not in the know. Genie is going to wreck their vacation time smh. Shame on you Disney. Sum of video: Dont use or trust Genie. Exactly as a I expected lmao.
This exactly how I feel. If you know the parks even following the free portion seems off. I've seen many videos where people get sent to blah food and rides. Everyone knows you can basically always go on the teacups without a huge wait. Hall of Presidents is great for after lunch or you need AC. (Although I dig it.) But it's just a bunch of stuff that doesn't seem to be measured in real time. It's more safe bets to lead new people into trusting the service.
I’d much rather have the wait times over posted than under. Makes you feel like you pulled a fast one. As for it pushing you to the HM as opposed to PoTC, could it be that it predicts the line for the others will remain steady, while the Mansion’s will only increase? And if you’re only there for such a limited time, is it maybe trying to get you in line while it’s still at its low point, knowing that you’re chances for riding the other will remain somewhat stable? We can’t possibly know what it will be like from just a few days. Just a thought.
You make a good point, *except* neither Genie nor Genie+ lets you schedule when you want your day to end. So it has no idea (& evidently doesn't care) if you want to be there all day, or 3-4 hrs.
It feels like the problem with the free version is it just recommends something from your list without even taking wait time into account or it's telling everyone the same recommendation so the wait time jumps up and Genie isn't reacting to that fast enough. Would be nice to see Free Genie against Touring Plans, which I know TP themselves did, but would be nice to be from an unbiased source. I also hate that this forces you to once again be buried in your phone.
Ideally, Genie would be great if everyone followed its directions and it was actually controlling the crowds. I think the downfall is...how many people are actually following the recommendations? It can recommend and predict all it wants, but it can't control what guests are actually going to do.
We’re going to Disneyland (we live in TX and typically go to WDW and UOR) the weekend before Christmas and I’m concerned what effect Genie will have on our trip. I was a big fan of MaxPass, but I know this is inferior to that.
Thanks for this Craig. What I got most out of it is that you still can't trust wait times! lol. It really doesn't sound like its any different from fast pass days other than it is affecting more rides.
I’m heading down tomorrow for a week and I am on the fence- part of me is just mad at another previously included item is an paid add on and it’s not any better than before. What I’ve seen in the app looks designed by a committee of marketing team instead of any real life basis. And why is Star Wars an option for things to do in magic kingdom?! It’s going to be interesting at least.
First and foremost I hope you have a safe trip and have fun! Second, it looks like MK and HS are really the only parks where you would get your money's worth for Genie+. If you are doing 2 days at both parks, I wouldn't even bother.
I feel like only time I’m using it will be the individual attractions that I really want to see . Not interested in paying for most others , I’ll wait in line .
Sounds like the point of the free Genie app is to give you FOMO and push you to buy the Paid version and the Lightning Lanes AND the Individual Experiences thing. Yippee dip. Great job even if it was not very magical for the app.
That’s what I was thinking too. It kept recommending rides that had a long wait time but also had the Genie+ option to pay for it. So it was creating something psychological in your head that you were always seeing long lines/wait times, where instead you could not be cross-crossing the park like it said to and find something more suitable.
I feel bad for people that trust Disney and would allow this APP to actually manage their day. They had Craig running back and forth to every corner of the park. Genie has a LONG way to go before I would consider trusting it.
I'd be interested if you guys would put genie vs touring plan. I'm not sure if you guys are friendly with them or even if its a conflict of interest. But I'd be really interested how they held up against one an other
Will you have Pete put you up in a deluxe resort with his 10,000 points and time out wait times for the extra magic hours in the evening at MK? Pretty please🙏🏻
Craig I’d love to see you try again but actually follow the Genie recommendations. Do what it tells you all day (no going rouge) and then review the day/experience you had.
What difference would it make if that’s not he wants to do? It should be tailored to your preferences. And kee things linear, not zigzagging across the park.
Craig, it wasn’t a disaster. You put in the ‘top’ rides in the park and expected the service to make that happen in 4 hours. That’s crazy. I watched a different Orlando Disney TH-camr do the same same thing in the Magic Kingdom. He put in zero preferences and got in a bunch of great rides in 6 hours. All 3 Mountains (Space, Big Thunder, Splash), Pirates, Haunted Mansion, along with Tiki Room, Carousel of Progress, The Carousel, The Swiss Family Tree House, and Barnstormer. Those are FIVE premier rides along with some middling and so-so ones. It can work, and probably will for most people who travel to the park for a family vacation. So many Orlando locals are spoiled because the all knew how to game the old system.
I'm only in 9mins of the vid and already wonder if it will effect the pro Disney planners that have their own mapped out plan when majority of people will be using the suggested schedule
I suggest there needs to be a double comparative test done with multi people one each in each lane, if LL is any more than half the Stand-by it is hardly worth it.
I think I am ok with the genie planning being just for first timers and people who are not concerned with doing all the things. This will ultimately be useful to the rest of us so crowds will be sent away from where we plan to go.
It told you to go to something else as the first. It may have estimated that the other line was going to drop in wait and you went to one that was getting worse. Wonder how long it takes for this to get working well.... if ever ha.
Ah, but with Genie+, you only get 1 time to use LL per attraction, per day! You could ride again using stand-by (don't know about ILLs), but Genie+ only gives 1 return time -- you can't ride over & over. That's it, period 🙄
I feel like maybe they are trying to send you on to HM early because they predict that the wait time isn’t going to drop any lower and you said you wanted to do it. I’m looking forward to further analysis from you. Of all the people who cover the parks, you are the one who seems to appreciate them in the same way I do.
Regardless if they predict wait times to stay steady or increase, it makes no diff. bc you can't set an end-time to your day. It just assumes you'll be there until close.
I prefer the over estimated time rather than under estimated time. I can gear up for the time posted and then be glad it didn't actually take that long.
Disney Genie-free is no bueno. Just back yesterday and I found that it was sending me to things with long wait times that I didn’t select. We went to Hollywood on rope drop, did rock roller coaster and Tower in less than an hour-muppets, millennium and paid for railway after rise went down. Lightning lane…friends were rolling with it that weren’t resort guests and they were pushed to late late times. When I’m MK genie kept sending us to barnstormer/teacups and speedway-it loves to send you to things you don’t pick.
If you are planning all day and you do 8 LL that is $2 each (per person). Plus, you get more rides done overall during the day. My price per ride overall drops. That is my assessment of value.
There are other recommendations besides Haunted Mansion though and you seem to be flying by them because you're not interested but others may. So this could work for some if they go by other recommendations given by Genie. Disney wants to point people towards Genie+ so I'm not too surprised. I'm planning on doing Genie+ most of our trip in December.
Think it showed a low wait for jungle cruise at one point as a recommendation, but when you switched to the tip board it showed 75 minutes. I could be wrong, but that wouldn’t be my definition of low.
I was at MK the second day of genie. Only in town one day. I did buy genie + . I didn’t think it did a good job of planning my day either. Kept suggesting things not on my interested list. You can say “stop suggesting this”. As for restaurants-the tips will say (Casey’s for example) that there are no mobile order window times open for the remainder of the day. Just go there and order in person. The tip board makes it seem like you can’t order at all.
My personal opinion...Genie is going to CAUSE issues because it's going to recommend to A LOT of people the SAME thing...so, like good little sheep, they'll follow it and all of a sudden that 30 minute wait is 50 minutes because everyone else went there. Plus, do you REALLY want to bounce around from one side of the park to the other? You'll be wasting time walking that COULD have been used to stand in a line CLOSE to where you already are. Pick a land, go on all of the rides you want to, then move to the next land.
That's pretty-much what I was going to say. It won't work the way it was intended if EVERYONE does EXACTLY what it says. Disney can gather all the historical data they want and program that into Genie, but they have no way of knowing what decisions people will actually make. Like you said, a 30 minute wait can turn into a 50 minute wait very quickly. That's probably why the Haunted Mansion line was so long...because Genie kept sending people there. The reason services like Ridemax and Touring Plans are so successful is because, popular as they are, the majority of people in the park are not using them. With Genie, the majority of the people in the park probably are using it. It's going to take a while for Disney to work out the Genie quirks.
I believe if you don’t like Genie’s suggestion you can tell it why. If a thousand people tell Genie “I only wanted the things on my list.” They just might get the hint.
The rides and attractions at Disney can only flow so many guests thru per day period. No app can alter that. That being said, I miss the days of being able to make my reservations at home, since I stay at Disney resort, I would use the 60 day window to reserve the fast passes, 3, for the parks and days I want to attend. Done. Then when I get to Disney, All I need to know is what time to be at my fastpass selections. I can then just roam the parks, watch the wait times on things I want to do, and casually do those attractiona as I wait for the times for my fastpasses. I get to freely explore and relax from my head burried in a phone juggling what to do next. Walking from land to land on a suggestion from an app would be exhausting to say the least. The only way wait times can go down is if Disney has more attractions or parks. Like I said, only so many per day can flow thru an attraction period. I miss the simpler Disney days.
PCDev even tried Genie+/Lightning Lane with park hopping. DHS was the worst. Disney needs to revaluate the whole Genie+ deal with DHS as well as make some changes.
It seems like it needs a time limit you can input. I would imagine Haunted Mansion kept being recommended because it was on your list and the queue wasn’t expected to drop before park close as many people would like to ride it at night. I would like to see two people input the same rides and interests and one follow the path and one do what they would normally do. I doubt it’s as good as touring plans or just an experienced Disney Guest. But I feel like it’s expected to do more than it’s capable of without getting more variables from the user.
Y’all should do a compare video.. see how each one goes in a day, 1 person just goes with the flow, 1 persons does genie, 1 person does lightning lane. All 3 of y’all in the same park on the same day.
We can try that soon. I already can say Lightning wins followed by plan your own day and Genie last, unless you are in the park from morning to night and really take advantage of the forecasted waits and if Disney can get them right.
@@TheDIS Will be a fun video to watch! You, Ryno and Deni.
@@TheDIS I would like to see a similar scenerio, whereas the three try Genie and not but only for the premium rides. I just priced them out for this weekend and to do all would come to $89 per person. Of course you couldn't do all but pick a few of the expensive ones and decide is this up charge is worth it.
That’s a GREAT idea.
@@TheDIS yeah, I think it would still be really useful at least to get a sense of how much better Genie+ Lightning is to see if it worth the price. There is a big difference between "better" and "$15 per person better"
Man this just makes going to Disney look so stressful. It looks more like going to work than being on vacation.
I think the end goal is to get you to upgrade. Period.
This. 💯
I'm convinced regular genie isn't actually meant to be super helpful, but more a way to break you down into caving and purchasing genie+
It appears genie and even genie plus have the (perhaps) unintended effect of increasing standby wait times, similar to old fast pass system.
Chris Hintz I don’t think it’s unintended . What better way to get the sheep pay more money.
This was honestly about how I expected. For those that go once a year, it’d be easier just to go to the long wait attractions in the morning and evening and save the less popular attractions for mid day.
That's literally what I've been doing every time I went, and its more effective than the crud, Disney genie is.
That is what my family does. We only visit every other year. We rope drop the most popular rides and do well with the others. I'm not very worried about lines at MK. It is HS that I am concerned about, but I think we'll be fine without Genie +.
that is literally the exact strategy that works regardless of genie, genie+, or even the original fastpass. hit popular ones in morning, do less popular ones or take a break mid day, then come back in late afternoon/evening and hit big ones again.
As a first go, seems like Genie needs to be sent back to school! Maybe even remedial classes...
I would like to see a full day using only free Genie, and a full day with Genie+. And one for each park. It's a lot, but would be veryyyyy interesting to see tested 👀
You can check out Disney Tourist Blog. They did just that with MK and have blog posts up detailing each experience.
I saw a vlog of people who did that at Hollywood Studios-the person who didn't pay for it, did better, but he did not use the plan set up by Genie either. This same person did a similar test as to what Craig is doing here and had the same experience-felt like it gave him odd choices.
Dude, so close! Great idea-wish you’d had a colleague w you who followed genie while you used your common sense snd intuition to truly make your point :-)
Genie is basically being forced against his will by Chapek, just like Jafar did to Genie
Touring plans have done a bunch of head to head's (including their optimized plans vs. Pay for everything) plus a couple of full days trying to do what Genie tells you (although anyone with any Disney knowledge would give up on Genie pretty quick IMO).
This was helpful. Basically avoid whatever the Genie tells you
touring plans has been more accurate then this mess Disney did (well pre covid)
This didn’t tell us anything, he ignored everything it suggested. The people that actually tested by listening to it have all been pretty complementary.
@@liquidwombat touring plans did a side-by-side comparison and agreed with Craig. It appears the Genie suggests what would be most magical for Disney :) not the customer. It suggests a lot of shows, stopping for snacks and coffee...while not bad things, these activities increase Disney revenue. Additionally it tends to guide you to purchase passes. For the money, I'll choose Touring Plans. It's a yearlong subscription and you only need one per family. I love Disney but am very disappointed in this latest attempt to raise revenue by paying for something that used to be free....
When Jafar is in charge of the company you can’t trust a genie that works for him
I've watched several bloggers doing a gentle rebellion against Genie Plus. They all agreed that it was a lot of bouncing around between lands and suggestions were for the lesser used rides. Thanks for doing that Craig!
Refreshing to see a honest review, whereas most of the other Disney vlog channels like AllEars and DFB will make it out to be all rainbows and roses.
I know! I mildly criticized the DFB video and I got a lot of negative response. When you say Disney is great every time, you lose credibility.
@@stevenphillips5323 yeah you can't go on either one of those channels and be even mildly critical of anything Disney's without the mouse ear worshipers jumping on you. Don't get me wrong I love the videos that Molly, Quincy etc over at AllEars put out but I take their "reviews" with a grain of salt.
@@marcschubert139 Oh man, that sounds really annoying. People need to chill. Things are going to be bad sometimes or not work properly, and there needs to be criticism in order for it to get better!
I do like an honest video. Personally I thought you sounded overly negative on certain things (like “over-posted” wait times). Like dude, “smile”; but that aside, I think yours and AllEars still arrived at the same conclusion. Freenie (Free Genie) offers a large handful of dumb suggestions and all in all, you need to have some park savvy to make your own common sense judgments and get back the time that Freenie would’ve otherwise wasted.
I just don’t like the idea of having to be stuck looking at my phone all day. It detracts from the magic of Disney World.
We’ve decided to get universal passes after the last several months.
I think I might as well due the same too for the same reason
This is a great decision that you will not regret. Universal is expanding and will become the park of first choice in the next five years. Universal is 1/2 the cost of Disney at this point. I hold AP's to WDW and Universal. I love them both but the future of Universal excites me the most.
Yes we bought annual passes to Uni for the first time and are so glad we did. It seems like Uni and WDW are moving into totally opposite directions, with Uni trying to be financially accessible to most economic levels ( with the building more affordable Surf Side resort), while WDW is becoming exclusive by catering only to wealthy guest who can afford $1200 per night per person to stay at the new Star Wars hotel, The trending contrast between the two companies tells a very different narrative. Just my observation
Wasn't really a fan of having it make you Criss-Cross back and forth across the park.
Yes, I thought whole point was to make your day easier .
I agree with you, that was my first concern was whether it would recommend rides across the park. I walk thru once either clockwise or counterclockwise and only once. Will see this December when I go to Epcot.
If I even look at Disney Genie, I will not take their advice. I will just use it to check wait times. My family no longer criss crosses the park. Too tiring.
Genie needs some work, it sent me to Tea Cups which was down then Buzz which posted 25 minute wait but was actually 45
What’s next Genie?
Answer: Carousel
Where’s lunch Genie?
Answer: Cosmic Ray’s for the best burger ever…then back to the Carousel
What now Genie?
Answer: Haunted Mansion 50 min wait. You’re welcome 😉
Two hours later…
Genie’s Final suggestion for the day:
Carousel 🎠
Anything “free” from Disney is usually crap lol 😆
I was just there 3 weeks ago and the wait times have increased substantially. As far as the Genie, I can see that it seems to ignore your requests and pushes you toward the slower wait rides. I agree that at this point it's not really helpful. I think when we come back in January we'll just wing-it like we always have. Thanks for taking the time to show us how it works under real-world use!
Thanks Craig for testing genie out for us!
Thanks for the review. It was very en”lightening”.Sad to see that the Stand “By” lanes have once again become the stand “Still” lanes. I guess we all knew the time without “help” and line management that occurred between Fastpass and Genie+ was too good to last. Thanks again.
😂
My husband and I are retired and visit Disneyland a couple of times a month. Single rider is our go to on Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Radiator Springs Racers, Indiana Jones and many more. We can make quick work of some great rides in very little time. Fingers crosed Genie Plus does not affect this great feature. Two thumbs up!
I feel bad for people who are coming for a once in a lifetime trip and are going to follow that!
My idea for a video is that two of you follow the exact same itinerary in which one of you has Genie+ and the other is just free styling it. That would be interesting to see.
Some guy did, the non-genie user managed 7 rides standby and the genie+ guy managed 5 rides at Hollywood Studios.
Kyle Pallo YT channel did this at HS.
2010 • WDW, did 4 parks, no magic bands, just paper fast pass, Managed to ride everything at least 2-4 times during our stay. This is not a vacation spending your day on a phone screen. The most magical place on Earth has lost it's magic....terrible experience....sad to see it happen.
Craig, any idea why attractions you didn't select appear in the "My Day" section? For example, you didn't choose the carrousel, but it kept coming up as a suggestion. What's up with that?
As we were concerned with and many others have pointed out, I think part of the app is truly to drive crowds where they want. I’m sure there’s plenty of people who will see something like the Carrousel selection and actually follow it. If it’s truly about getting you to do what you want, they need to add a button saying I’m not interested and also a button that allows you to check off what you’ve done so it knows what to suggest further down the line without having to go back to edit your day.
@@TheDIS Sounds like maybe "Disney Jafar" would be a more-appropriate name. 😃
About what I would expect for version 1 of this. I would hope it gets better with time.
I really don’t think any kind of technology like this will beat out a knowledgeable Disney park guest. There are too many factors not accounted for especially the amount of people who don’t want to be looking at their phones all day while they’re in the park.
I agree. My family goes every other year but have been visiting for many years. We kind of have a system worked out so are not too worried about not using Genie +.
I remember when I was a kid 20+ years ago and my mother had a book to help give a basic idea of anything new when we'd go. She'd plan out things in a vague way. We knew what we wanted to see that was new, older things, etc. We'd all get aggravated but things worked fine. This makes me sound dated but I can go to amusement parks across the country without needing a paid for daily app portion and still have a good time. Shrug. Life is what you make of it.
Right? At the beginning of 2020 pre-pandemic I went on a trip with 5 adults in which we bought tickets kind of last minute and stayed off property so we weren’t even able to get fast passes for a lot of major rides. I still did my research and got to the park early every day. We still were able to ride everything we wanted (including rise of the resistance) and the only two wait times longer than an hour were Runaway Railway (because it opened that week) and Flight of Passage which we actually rode twice, the second time with a short wait later in the day. I think a lot of people forget that Disney is supposed to be a fun vacation not a challenge to “do it all”. Simply narrowing down the things you want to do and taking the time to enjoy the people you are there with and the atmosphere of it all makes for a good experience. It’s all about mindset. Any kind of “paid” fast pass option just introduces scarcity and exclusivity to make people panic buy when it hasn’t been shown to greatly improve one’s experience.
It will be interesting to see if it gets " smarter" about recommendations. Will the free version improve at moving the crowds around the park and make better recommendations, or will it continue to keep making the same ones? Is it worth the money to get the Genie + with lightening lanes, will the recommendations improve if you spend the extra $$$. Great video Craig...thanks for showing us a more "realistic" view than other influencers have.
Not a great test of the Genie app if you ignore it completely. However, I suspect Craig was right - what Genie was saying just didn't make sense. Touring Plans have done a good video comparing their app against Genie, which shows that the Genie app is seriously flawed for optimising rides you want to do. I was worried that the Genie app might destroy the Touring Plans business model - from what I've seen so far, not a chance!
Its an ai so it will be better eventually.
That's what I was thinking too. I thought the whole point of his review was to follow the Genie? Granted, it probably would have taken longer than expected, but at least we'd know for sure?
Great info. Where do you go for tips instead?
Thank you!! Will you try again to see results the same maybe a longer day?
Does Genie ask if guests followed its suggestions, or whether or not guests found them to be helpful? Curious to see if/how the recommendations improve as it gets more data.
I have a trip booked with Dreams Unlimited for 4 at the end of February for 8 days and the thought of $480 added to the price of our trip is too much.
In other words, Disney is royally screwing up by taking away Fast Passes.
I go for 4 days in mid December. This will decide if I sell my Disney Vacation Club or not. I dont see keeping it to wait in lines.
FastPasses worked because you chose what rides you absolutely had to ride. There shouldnt be another charge for “lightning lanes.”
I got back a week ago and am seriously considering selling. The parks were extremely crowded (even at Boo Bash for 140 bucks), there were several things wrong with the room, cast members were openly complaining, the park reservation system devalues park hopping, and paying for fast passes is just a slap in the face.
Go to Disney to stare into your phone...sounds like a great family time!
I liked that you showed what the genie screen looked like on your phone. I was excited to get the update. But my phone is out of date and wont support the new features. I am really bummed out about it. So I steered clear of most of the news about this. I figured I would just check in to see what Craig was up to and I am glad I did!
The only thing I would say, Craig, is even a well optimized plan (like with Touring Plans) might have you wait in a long line that isn't going to get lower (e.g. Haunted Mansion during Halloween season). What is odd is that they were prioritizing THAT one when so many others you selected never made it on their plan for you at all. Also you can't cap your end time so they make weird choices.
What camera was this filmed with? The on-ride footage looked incredible. Also your stabilizer for outdoors was awesome!
I don’t like being told what to do on vacation 🤣 , genie . Great video.
@DIS team. Does everyone shot with cell phones and maybe something to steady shot or are you using better cameras? The video seemed to be very sharp.
Great information and fun to watch. Very nice POV’s. Are you using a camera on your phone?
Did it seem like the people using the lightning lane got straight on? I have waited in the FastPass line on Space Mountain for 15-20 minutes before (and really most fastpass lines still had some waiting).
Always nice to see a review on the new regular genie. We’re going in March so plenty of time to see more reviews.
I agree with not using Genie to plan your day. At WDW this week and we consistently found the posted wait times inflated by nearly double. Genie + has its own set of issues as well. Agree with the standby lines dragging since LL started. They don't go as slow as when FP+ was fully running, but as more people purchase LL, I suspect it will.
Agree to add a feature not interested or ignore an attraction . Anything changed for food listing ? Can you search by food item- like where to find churros?
Genie is basically for those that have never been to the parks. It would be good for the programers to try to cluster rides to your location and move in a pattern so you aren’t zigzagging the park.
I really get the vibe that there was zero testing or info collection. It was just made and flung out. "WE'LL FIX IT IN POST! "
3:00 great job Genie (note sarcasm)
can i ask, what do u think will happen if most people buy Genie plus. Surely that queue will then be enormous too.
why are there people stuck outside space mountain if the wait is only 45 min?
Dude, so close! Great idea-wish you’d told us your choices at the top of the vid and wish you had a colleague w you who followed genie while you used your common sense snd intuition to truly make your point :-)
So genie plus seems like it would make sense for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood studios but what about animal Kingdom and Epcot? I feel like a better use of the $15 per person in Epcot would be to buy ratatouille and just do standby
Exactly my thoughts.
Just rope drop Flight of Passage and the rest is smooth sailing. That is what I do.
@@jeanettesmith765 thanks I’ll do that
Craig: I AM GOING TO LET DISNEY GENIE GUIDE MY DAY!!1!!
Also Craig: I am not going to do what Disney Genie tells me to do....
Ok then, I guess there is nothing to learn here about the Genie service. Just an experienced park-goer doing what they would normally do.
Clearly genie wasn't working the way it was intended or it wouldn't have sent him to rides with that long of wait times.
If you want to see someone who really did exactly as told (including the Swiss Family Treehouse at 10 am!) check out Touring Plans' test. It was really bad.
I really did intend to, but I couldn’t accomplish what I wanted in the time span I wanted had I followed it. I would’ve went on Buzz Lightyear, Haunted Mansion and the Carousel. That’s not looking at what I’m interested in experiencing so you are correct, there’s nothing new to learn except Genie doesn’t work.
Like, their tester was given Jungle Cruise, Swiss Family Treehouse, Tiki Room, Magic Carpets, and Tom Sawyer first thing in the AM. The only thing they said they were interested in in that entire list was Jungle Cruise.
We appreciate your honest appraisal of the free Genie system. Doesn’t sound like it’s up to much, but it is early days, so I’ll keep an eye on reviews to see if it improves. I hate that people are basically forced into buying the + version then find themselves in a huge line anyway. This new system isn’t looking that great to me.
Thanks for the review, great information for reference. It would be really interesting to see if 2 people had the same wishlist and 1 used genie and the other had genie+. How much more would get done with genie+?
It'd be even better if they did it that challenge in small groups and not as single riders. Several videos that attempted this cheesed out by having the non-Genie guy hit single-rider queues, which most people visiting Disney don't use (unless it's an immediate walk-on) because they want to ride together.
Kyle Pallo and JoJos World just uploaded exactly this video yesterday for Hollywood Studios. Actually not the same wishlist…just free v paid genie
Check out Disney Tourist Blog. They each did a day in MK, one with Genie+ and one without.
Can you go again Craig, and take Ryno with you? Would love a video where you both set up the same Genie day but one of you follows it to the letter and the other one of you diverts whenever they think they should. Then compare the two days you had.
With all the explanation of this system the last couple weeks, this demonstration is by far the best.
Thank you Craig, great job as always! Appreciate your honesty!
What happened to you is exactly what Touring Plans experienced. I'm passing on all this Genie/Lightning Lane nonsense. It's just a way to short change Disney guests. Who I feel really bad for are the inexperience and those not in the know. Genie is going to wreck their vacation time smh. Shame on you Disney.
Sum of video: Dont use or trust Genie. Exactly as a I expected lmao.
This exactly how I feel. If you know the parks even following the free portion seems off. I've seen many videos where people get sent to blah food and rides. Everyone knows you can basically always go on the teacups without a huge wait. Hall of Presidents is great for after lunch or you need AC. (Although I dig it.) But it's just a bunch of stuff that doesn't seem to be measured in real time. It's more safe bets to lead new people into trusting the service.
I’d much rather have the wait times over posted than under. Makes you feel like you pulled a fast one.
As for it pushing you to the HM as opposed to PoTC, could it be that it predicts the line for the others will remain steady, while the Mansion’s will only increase? And if you’re only there for such a limited time, is it maybe trying to get you in line while it’s still at its low point, knowing that you’re chances for riding the other will remain somewhat stable? We can’t possibly know what it will be like from just a few days. Just a thought.
You make a good point, *except* neither Genie nor Genie+ lets you schedule when you want your day to end. So it has no idea (& evidently doesn't care) if you want to be there all day, or 3-4 hrs.
It feels like the problem with the free version is it just recommends something from your list without even taking wait time into account or it's telling everyone the same recommendation so the wait time jumps up and Genie isn't reacting to that fast enough. Would be nice to see Free Genie against Touring Plans, which I know TP themselves did, but would be nice to be from an unbiased source. I also hate that this forces you to once again be buried in your phone.
Never let a Genie tell you what to do....obviously Genie smokes too much weed. 😵 Thanks Craig - great video.
Ideally, Genie would be great if everyone followed its directions and it was actually controlling the crowds. I think the downfall is...how many people are actually following the recommendations? It can recommend and predict all it wants, but it can't control what guests are actually going to do.
It would send everyone to buy snacks and check out the shows lol
"It's back to fastpass days", except the fastpass isn't free.
We’re going to Disneyland (we live in TX and typically go to WDW and UOR) the weekend before Christmas and I’m concerned what effect Genie will have on our trip. I was a big fan of MaxPass, but I know this is inferior to that.
Thanks for this Craig. What I got most out of it is that you still can't trust wait times! lol. It really doesn't sound like its any different from fast pass days other than it is affecting more rides.
It looks as though all along Craig himself, was the true Disney Genie.
I’m heading down tomorrow for a week and I am on the fence- part of me is just mad at another previously included item is an paid add on and it’s not any better than before. What I’ve seen in the app looks designed by a committee of marketing team instead of any real life basis. And why is Star Wars an option for things to do in magic kingdom?! It’s going to be interesting at least.
First and foremost I hope you have a safe trip and have fun! Second, it looks like MK and HS are really the only parks where you would get your money's worth for Genie+. If you are doing 2 days at both parks, I wouldn't even bother.
I feel like only time I’m using it will be the individual attractions that I really want to see . Not interested in paying for most others , I’ll wait in line .
Sounds like the point of the free Genie app is to give you FOMO and push you to buy the Paid version and the Lightning Lanes AND the Individual Experiences thing. Yippee dip. Great job even if it was not very magical for the app.
That’s what I was thinking too. It kept recommending rides that had a long wait time but also had the Genie+ option to pay for it. So it was creating something psychological in your head that you were always seeing long lines/wait times, where instead you could not be cross-crossing the park like it said to and find something more suitable.
I feel bad for people that trust Disney and would allow this APP to actually manage their day. They had Craig running back and forth to every corner of the park. Genie has a LONG way to go before I would consider trusting it.
I'd be interested if you guys would put genie vs touring plan. I'm not sure if you guys are friendly with them or even if its a conflict of interest. But I'd be really interested how they held up against one an other
That's right! Be your own genie. Watch the wait times!
I had a long weekend WDW trip booked for the end of Jan. I've cancelled and booked a DCL cruise, instead. I can't with all of this G+, ILL nonsense.
So you should change this video to “completely ignoring Disney Genie and just doing what the hell i want” 🤣
Will you have Pete put you up in a deluxe resort with his 10,000 points and time out wait times for the extra magic hours in the evening at MK? Pretty please🙏🏻
Yes! Please!
What about a touring plans vs genie+ video?!
Craig I’d love to see you try again but actually follow the Genie recommendations. Do what it tells you all day (no going rouge) and then review the day/experience you had.
What difference would it make if that’s not he wants to do? It should be tailored to your preferences. And kee things linear, not zigzagging across the park.
Going on 1/2/22 to Epcot to try to eat at Space220 - Thanks Craig for this - VERY helpful!
Craig, it wasn’t a disaster. You put in the ‘top’ rides in the park and expected the service to make that happen in 4 hours. That’s crazy.
I watched a different Orlando Disney TH-camr do the same same thing in the Magic Kingdom. He put in zero preferences and got in a bunch of great rides in 6 hours. All 3 Mountains (Space, Big Thunder, Splash), Pirates, Haunted Mansion, along with Tiki Room, Carousel of Progress, The Carousel, The Swiss Family Tree House, and Barnstormer. Those are FIVE premier rides along with some middling and so-so ones.
It can work, and probably will for most people who travel to the park for a family vacation. So many Orlando locals are spoiled because the all knew how to game the old system.
I'm only in 9mins of the vid and already wonder if it will effect the pro Disney planners that have their own mapped out plan when majority of people will be using the suggested schedule
I suggest there needs to be a double comparative test done with multi people one each in each lane, if LL is any more than half the Stand-by it is hardly worth it.
I think I am ok with the genie planning being just for first timers and people who are not concerned with doing all the things. This will ultimately be useful to the rest of us so crowds will be sent away from where we plan to go.
Thank you Craig for you honest opinion.
Thank you Craig. This video was helpful.
It told you to go to something else as the first. It may have estimated that the other line was going to drop in wait and you went to one that was getting worse. Wonder how long it takes for this to get working well.... if ever ha.
That’s how the Max Pass at Disneyland seemed a few years ago, I don’t know how many times we rode Buzz Lightyear.
Ah, but with Genie+, you only get 1 time to use LL per attraction, per day! You could ride again using stand-by (don't know about ILLs), but Genie+ only gives 1 return time -- you can't ride over & over. That's it, period 🙄
I feel like maybe they are trying to send you on to HM early because they predict that the wait time isn’t going to drop any lower and you said you wanted to do it. I’m looking forward to further analysis from you. Of all the people who cover the parks, you are the one who seems to appreciate them in the same way I do.
That’s what I just said. I should have kept reading! LOL
Regardless if they predict wait times to stay steady or increase, it makes no diff. bc you can't set an end-time to your day. It just assumes you'll be there until close.
I prefer the over estimated time rather than under estimated time. I can gear up for the time posted and then be glad it didn't actually take that long.
Disney Genie-free is no bueno. Just back yesterday and I found that it was sending me to things with long wait times that I didn’t select. We went to Hollywood on rope drop, did rock roller coaster and Tower in less than an hour-muppets, millennium and paid for railway after rise went down.
Lightning lane…friends were rolling with it that weren’t resort guests and they were pushed to late late times.
When I’m MK genie kept sending us to barnstormer/teacups and speedway-it loves to send you to things you don’t pick.
If you are planning all day and you do 8 LL that is $2 each (per person). Plus, you get more rides done overall during the day. My price per ride overall drops. That is my assessment of value.
Thanks for sharing your experience Craig. That was great info and a balanced report! 🍻
There are other recommendations besides Haunted Mansion though and you seem to be flying by them because you're not interested but others may. So this could work for some if they go by other recommendations given by Genie. Disney wants to point people towards Genie+ so I'm not too surprised. I'm planning on doing Genie+ most of our trip in December.
I am an enormous Disneyland fan. Like YUGE! And I hate to admit that the magic is fading and fading fast.
Think it showed a low wait for jungle cruise at one point as a recommendation, but when you switched to the tip board it showed 75 minutes. I could be wrong, but that wouldn’t be my definition of low.
It’s low in 2021. Parks are packed
I was at MK the second day of genie. Only in town one day. I did buy genie + . I didn’t think it did a good job of planning my day either. Kept suggesting things not on my interested list. You can say “stop suggesting this”. As for restaurants-the tips will say (Casey’s for example) that there are no mobile order window times open for the remainder of the day. Just go there and order in person. The tip board makes it seem like you can’t order at all.
My personal opinion...Genie is going to CAUSE issues because it's going to recommend to A LOT of people the SAME thing...so, like good little sheep, they'll follow it and all of a sudden that 30 minute wait is 50 minutes because everyone else went there. Plus, do you REALLY want to bounce around from one side of the park to the other? You'll be wasting time walking that COULD have been used to stand in a line CLOSE to where you already are. Pick a land, go on all of the rides you want to, then move to the next land.
That's pretty-much what I was going to say. It won't work the way it was intended if EVERYONE does EXACTLY what it says. Disney can gather all the historical data they want and program that into Genie, but they have no way of knowing what decisions people will actually make. Like you said, a 30 minute wait can turn into a 50 minute wait very quickly. That's probably why the Haunted Mansion line was so long...because Genie kept sending people there. The reason services like Ridemax and Touring Plans are so successful is because, popular as they are, the majority of people in the park are not using them. With Genie, the majority of the people in the park probably are using it. It's going to take a while for Disney to work out the Genie quirks.
Isn't the Genie+ per person/per day?
Yes
I believe if you don’t like Genie’s suggestion you can tell it why. If a thousand people tell Genie “I only wanted the things on my list.” They just might get the hint.
Walking from Tomorrowland to Liberty Square to Adventureland to get to your next rides? That's a big nope for me.
Tossled. - You
The rides and attractions at Disney can only flow so many guests thru per day period. No app can alter that. That being said, I miss the days of being able to make my reservations at home, since I stay at Disney resort, I would use the 60 day window to reserve the fast passes, 3, for the parks and days I want to attend. Done. Then when I get to Disney, All I need to know is what time to be at my fastpass selections. I can then just roam the parks, watch the wait times on things I want to do, and casually do those attractiona as I wait for the times for my fastpasses. I get to freely explore and relax from my head burried in a phone juggling what to do next. Walking from land to land on a suggestion from an app would be exhausting to say the least. The only way wait times can go down is if Disney has more attractions or parks. Like I said, only so many per day can flow thru an attraction period. I miss the simpler Disney days.
I can only hope for a free “fast pass” option in the future. So sad.
PCDev even tried Genie+/Lightning Lane with park hopping. DHS was the worst. Disney needs to revaluate the whole Genie+ deal with DHS as well as make some changes.
It seems like it needs a time limit you can input. I would imagine Haunted Mansion kept being recommended because it was on your list and the queue wasn’t expected to drop before park close as many people would like to ride it at night.
I would like to see two people input the same rides and interests and one follow the path and one do what they would normally do.
I doubt it’s as good as touring plans or just an experienced Disney Guest. But I feel like it’s expected to do more than it’s capable of without getting more variables from the user.