Who else misses FASTPASS?Over the past few weeks I’ve been adding some #ThrowbackThursday and #FlashbackFriday pictures to the Disney Over 50 Facebook and Instagram accounts. I love looking back. Many of the pictures that I’ve added are from rides or attractions that no longer exist. Some aren’t missed, like The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Others, like The Great Movie Ride, people do truly seem to miss. There has been a lot of change at Walt Disney World in the 13 years that my family and I have lived here. Some changes have been hits, while others have missed the mark. I thought it might be fun to write a short series on these hits and misses.
My hits so far have been Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot and Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Flotillas. I’ve counted Epcot’s short-lived Harmonious as a miss, no matter how much I liked it. The biggest miss so far is arguably Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. And Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is a little bit hit and a little bit miss.
I’m going with another miss this time, Disney Genie. More specifically, Disney Genie+. I know that there are thousands of people who purchase Disney Genie+ and save a lot of time using the service. The problem isn’t what Genie+ offers, it’s that we now have to pay for something that used to be included for free.
With Disney Genie+, for one fee you can purchase the ability to go through the Lightning Lane, which means you’ll skip the standby line. That’s what you used to be able to do with FASTPASS, for free. I know that other theme parks charge for their skip-the-line privileges, but having a free offering set Walt Disney World apart. The price for Disney Genie+ quickly adds up. A family of four will easily add $100 a day to their vacation.
Since you now have to pay for what used to be free, the Cast Members are under added pressure to keep the Lightning Lane moving. I’ve waited next in the Standby Line for 15 minutes while they tried to get the Lighting Lane guests through. I’m not complaining about the wait, I didn’t pay for the service. But I do feel bad for the CMs who are trying to keep everyone happy.
In the old FASTPASS or FastPass+ days, I would use the service all the time. Living just a few miles from the theme parks, we would show up and see what was available. Once FastPass+ rolled around, we would book a couple of attractions near each other in time and show up for them. It was easy to get a couple of rides in without waiting. Now, I’m not going to purchase Disney Genie+ to be able to ride one or two things. These days I’ll just wait in Standby or we will skip the ride altogether.
Another problem with Disney Genie+ is that many people have no idea how to use it. One of the top complaints that I hear is that someone purchased it and then didn’t get to ride any of the E-ticket attractions, because they didn’t realize that the spots would be gone so quickly. As they tried to figure out the service, other people snatched them up.
I will admit that we will purchase Disney Genie+ at least one day when my daughter and I go to Disneyland. It makes things easier for us. That said, we used to purchase MaxPass as well, which offered pretty much the same service. The difference is that when we didn’t purchase MaxPass we could still get FASTPASSES, we just had to go to the kiosk.
There are things about the free Disney Genie service that I like. The Tip Board has some helpful information. I especially like the “Forecasted Wait Today” that you can find on the attractions in this section. Whether or not those times are accurate, I’m not sure, but it can be useful information.
A lot of people think that Disney Genie came about because of the shutdown and the pandemic. That’s not what happened. Disney Genie was announced at the D23 Expo in 2019. The pandemic was just a convenient excuse to start charging guests for what was once free.
If you use Disney Genie+ and love it, I’m happy for you! I think that it can be a great service if you don’t mind the cost. My “miss” is because we’re now paying for something that we didn’t pay for before. If they had rolled out a system like Disneyland had with MaxPass, it would be in the hit column. I might even consider Disney Genie+ a hit if it was more user friendly. But the way things are now, in my mind, Disney Genie+ overall is a miss.