
Back in October, Disney launched its newest planning tool — Disney Genie — at Walt Disney World Resort. Disney Genie was a free planning service that helps Guests maximize their time in the Parks with wait times, ride suggestions, and dining recommendations. Disney Genie also came with a paid-for tool called Disney Genie+, which took over the previously free FastPass system. Disney Genie+ allowed Guests to pay $15 per day, per Guest for Lightning Lane (FastPass line) access to a number of rides throughout the four theme parks.
Although many Disney World Guests were not thrilled to have to pay for a service that was once free, the launch seemed to go relatively smoothly with just a few hiccups. Many Guests found being able to book a Lightning Lane attraction from their phone to be worth the cost alone. While not all ride suggestions made sense to all Guests, many liked being able to look at wait times at the same time as booking a Lightning Lane pass, which helped them figure out the perfect way to plan their day.
While Disney launched Disney Genie at Walt Disney World Resort first, the company promised that Disneyland Resort would also be receiving the service in the near future — and that future ended up being December 8. Unfortunately, the Disney Genie and Genie+ launch at Disneyland Resort did not go nearly as smoothly as the Disney World launch, and Guests were less than thrilled.
On December 7, Amazon’s cloud service experienced a major outage, which affected both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World mobile apps. It looks like the problems the Disneyland app was facing on the 7th did not get fully resolved by the 8th. Guests trying to use their Genie+ found themselves unable to book ride reservations or access their individual attraction selection reservations, which had cost them additional fees.
One user, @Imaginat1on, even noticed that the wait times being listed by Disney Genie were significantly higher than those being listed by the Park outside the Disney Genie tool, and they found that slightly suspicious.
Ok wow… the Disneyland app itself shows Rise of the Resistance right now at a 60 minute wait. But #DisneyGenie shows it at a whopping 140 MINUTES (!!) but with a $20 option to ride 3 mins from now. That’s… super shady?
https://twitter.com/imaginat1on/status/1468646727490043907?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1468646727490043907%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.frommers.com%2Fblogs%2Farthur-frommer-online%2Fblog_posts%2Fthe-glitchy-genie-lightning-lane-system-arrives-at-disneyland
Another user, Jenny Stringfellow, shared that she spoke to a Cast Member who informed her that Disney officials had decided to end Disney Genie and Genie+ early in the day due to all the issues Guests were facing.
Lol in case anyone was wondering how Genie+ is going, had a call with Disneyland for a totally unrelated reason, mentioned to the CM we were going Sunday and we were curious to see how it was gonna be and she said “Well Jafar has put Genie back in his lamp for now” SO THERE WE GO
https://twitter.com/jen_strings/status/1468726782408859652
Those Guests who had purchased Disney Genie+ or individual attraction selections were given refunds on their purchases and ride recovery passes were also being handed out so Guests who had made a ride reservation could in fact get to the front of the line on their selected attractions.
The issues Disneyland had with Disney Genie and Genie+ are most likely stemming from the outage that happened yesterday that Amazon is still cleaning up. The Disneyland mobile app still tells users that they are experiencing some technical difficulties and some app features may not be available. Hopefully, once everything is cleared up with the cloud outage, Disney Genie+ will be a much smoother experience for the Guests who wish to utilize it.