The first major stress test on the new Disney Genie+ system came during Thanksgiving Week, and it was an abysmal performance by Disney’s new paid skip-the-line offering.
What is Disney Genie+
Disney Genie+ is technically a suite of offerings such as Disney PhotoPass Lenses and Audio Tours, but the real value is currently found in Lightning Lane – Disney’s skip-the-line offering. With Disney Genie+, guests have access to over 40 Lightning Lane-enabled attractions.
How Does Lightning Lane Work?
Lightning Lane is the physical line that allows guests to skip the standard standby queue. Guests who have purchased Disney Genie+ are able to make one Lightning Lane return time selection at a time throughout the day, as availability allows. Once a guest uses a Lightning Lane, or 120 minutes elapse from the time a selection was made, guests can make another Lightning Lane selection.
Thanksgiving Week Crush
Thanksgiving Week saw a surge of guests visit Walt Disney World, leading to average wait times higher than any other week since the Walt Disney World theme parks reopened following COVID-19 shutdowns. Graphs provided by thrill-data.com.
Now, how did Lightning Lane availability look during Thanksgiving Week? Abysmal. In the graphs below, we can glean two data points of interest.
- Color – The color of each “block” indicates how far into the future the next available return time is. If the block is green, the return time is earlier in the day and orange to red is later in the day.
- Availabiliy – If the block has a color, there is a time available to book, even if it’s far into the future. If the block is grey, there is no availability.
Let’s take a look at an example. Here’s a look at availability for all of the Lightning Lane-enabled attractions at Walt Disney World on November 2, 2021. We can see that only a handful of attractions didn’t have availability into the end of park operations. We can see that green turns to red as the day moves along, indicating that the “next available window” wasn’t too far into the future.
Now, let’s take a look at Thanksgiving Week Lightning Lane availability.
November 22
November 23
November 24
November 25 (Thanksgiving Day)
November 26
As crowds started to dwindle following Thanksgiving, we can see that availability has returned to a more normalized level. Not quite back to what we saw in early November, but much more manageable than what was seen during Thanksgiving Week. Midday availability was noticeably improved.
While it may be too early to call Disney Genie+ a holiday failure, it’s certainly shaping up to be a waste of money during peak holiday times. At this point, we’d want to urge setting expectations low should you purchase Disney Genie+ for the upcoming Christmas season. We’ll continue to keep an eye on availability and expectations as we get closer to mid-December.
In the meantime, we decided to check out what was possible with an afternoon of “stacking” at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. You can check out our report on that below.
For more on Disney Genie, Disney Genie+, and Individual Lightning Lane attraction selections, check out our articles below!
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
I was there over Thanksgiving week. Hollywood Studios I could only get get 2 LLs for each of the 2 days I was there. Magic Kingdom and Epcot were easy but the popular rides sold out just after park opening. The popular pay per ride LLs sold out before park opening.
Here for it. Could not have been worse.
A group of 4 , was just there this past Monday and Tuesday. At Hollywood Studio’s. We were all disappointed on the long wait times. Some rides were up to 2 hour wait. I my self can’t stand in line that long. .Also they no longer offer the Disabled line for person’s that can’t stand in line long. The only persons that were able to use that feature where mentally handi capped. We only used this on rides that had very long lines and only three rides per day per group. Just like the fast pass. but for the Handi-cap person’s. only. Please bring this back for us. So we can also enjoy a few rides a day. Thank you . Seniors, that enjoy the parks that also want a enjoy a few fun rides once in a while.