Disney Genie Is Your New Best Friend
Disney Genie is official, as the Parks Blog just revealed official details.
We’ve got a lot to unpack, and I’ll be honest. It’s gonna take more than one conversation.
So, please consider today’s dialogue the start of an extended, somewhat abstract conversation about the future of Disney theme park visits.
Welcome to the era of Disney Genie, a system that will grant your wishes. Some of the wishes work better if you’re willing to pay more, though.
What’s Disney Genie?
Park officials revealed Disney Genie in August of 2019. At the time, the company described the new app as:
“Disney Genie will make planning easier and more fun by providing customized itineraries geared to your interests, right at your fingertips.”
Roughly two years later, Disney unveiled this YouTube video:
You’ll find some shorter versions on YouTube as well, but this one tries to answer most of your questions. So now, I’ll do the same, starting with the basics.
In the most dramatic Disney park change since the arrival of Magic Bands in 2014, Disney has done away with FastPasses.
That’s a technicality based on semantics, though. What Disney has actually done is borrow an idea from several popular Disney fansites.
The company has created a new virtual assistant app that will try to address all your needs during a park visit.
Imagine an all-knowing Disney expert who follows you around, only appearing whenever you need advice.
You’d think, “What should I ride next?” Suddenly, the Genie from Aladdin would appear and say, “Big Thunder Mountain has short lines right now!”
That’s the premise for the app, although there’s MUCH more to it than that.
For example, sometimes you get hungry. Disney Genie will know which restaurants have availability or open Mobile Ordering windows soon.
That’s significant because arguably the most frequent complaint from Disney guests involves the amount of planning you must do for a trip.
This program seeks to combat those concerns. Rather than planning heavily, you can simply show up and trust the Disney Genie to fulfill your needs.
Whether you want to ride something, eat something, meet a character, or go to a bathroom, it can help.
In truth, this program sounds like a superior MyDisneyExperience app with a virtual assistant thrown in for good measure.
How Will Disney Genie Help?
Each week, I write a Walt Disney World Wait Times article for MickeyBlog.
Several sources on the web collate this data, with some even listing hourly highlights on social media.
Here’s the thing, though. All the data collectors are just guessing based on publicly available information.
They take note of listed wait times on rides and then stand in some, determining the actual wait.
A few have gotten smarter over the years, using smartphone technology to track the data.
However, only one source knows the truth, and that’s Disney. Thanks to the era of big data, park officials possess all information about ride wait times and throughput.
Disney Genie will pull back the curtain and shine a light on this information. It’ll be readily available on your phone!
To wit, let’s talk more about that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad suggestion.
The Genie may suggest that you ride it now. However, you may not feel like walking.
So, the Genie will show you average wait times throughout the day, allowing you to plan the best time to circle back to Frontierland.
The app gives you the most current information about the parks, allowing you to make informed decisions about the best ways to spend your time.
As hard as MickeyBlog tries to give you advice, we can’t be at all the parks simultaneously. Disney Genie draws information from everywhere at once.
Think of this app as the world’s greatest resource ever for Disney park information.
Best of all, you can use it whenever you want, free of charge! Yes, a paid version is available, but we’ll save that conversation for a companion piece.
But What IS Disney Genie?
I realize that some of this conversation is abstract and theoretical.
For that reason, we will talk about Disney Genie A LOT throughout the rest of 2021. It’s all-encompassing.
What’s important is that this virtual assistant will fundamentally change the way that we approach park visits.
Disney Genie will effectively reset the knowledge gap between park veterans and noobs.
For example, I always stress that the best time to visit the parks is after 3 p.m. and that EPCOT provides the best bang for the buck.
A person visiting Walt Disney World for the first time can learn the same information just from checking Disney Genie once!
It’s a comprehensive knowledge compendium, the Disney equivalent of the Library of Congress.
When Microsoft created its virtual assistant (AI), it used the name Cortana due to the branding from the Halo videogame franchise.
Disney has done the same with Genie, the beloved character from the Aladdin movies.
Still, the baseline for all these apps is the same. It’s Siri. Or Alexa.
The name doesn’t matter, just that you say, “Computer, what’s the capital of Paraguay.” Then, your robot tells you that it’s Asunción.
There’s no need for you to pretend that you knew that. The AI did the thinking for you. And if it was good enough for the Star Trek Enterprise, it’s good enough for you!
So, you shouldn’t get bogged down with details too much, as that almost defeats the purpose here. Disney Genie wants to do all the heavy lifting for you!
At its core, Disney Genie is the world’s first theme park-exclusive virtual assistant. And its mere existence would have blown Walt Disney’s mind!
How You Will Use Disney Genie
This app will help you show up for an unplanned Disney vacation and feel like you spent months lining up reservations and FastPasses.
On the ground level, that’s what we’re talking about. You hop in a car and drive to Disney, armed only with Disney Genie.
When you arrive, the app will identify which park’s lines are better than usual.
Once you’re inside the park, it’ll tell you which attraction provides the best bang for the buck.
You don’t have to listen to it any more than you must follow your car GPS when it tries to send you through 5 p.m. traffic when you know a shortcut.
You’ll receive suggestions on the fly, reducing and sometimes even eliminating the need for an itinerary. You’re doing Disney on your terms now!
A paid enhancement will add to the experience, but don’t miss the forest for the trees here.
Disney Genie in and of itself represents the most remarkable park innovation in several years. Bob Chapek describes it as MyMagic+ on steroids.
As such, you should think of it as the one-stop solution for all your park visit needs.
When you’re at Walt Disney World, it’s your loyal companion that never lets you down.
Thanks to Disney Genie, I believe that the average park guest will improve productivity by at least 20 percent.
You won’t meander aimlessly, paralyzed by indecision. Instead, your app will list some suggestions. You’ll pick one and move along with your day.
That sort of on-the-fly visit will do wonders for everyone’s overall park experience, too.
It’ll discourage the herd mentality that drives people to Pandora – The World of Avatar at Rope Drop each day.
The app will address every user’s tendencies, crafting a unique day.
Final Thoughts
Over the years, I’ve mentioned some quirks about my wife and my Disney visits.
Her favorite ride is Haunted Mansion, while mine is Spaceship Earth. My favorite restaurant (in the world) is Sci-Fi Dine-In, while hers is Rose & Crown Dining Room.
Together, we always Rope Drop but then like to leave the parks early in the afternoon. Later, we return at/after dinner.
We would never in a million years head straight to a wet ride like Splash Mountain or Kali River Rapids at Rope Drop. That would ruin our hair for PhotoPass pictures.
At Pandora, we prefer Na’vi River Journey to Avatar Flight of Passage. Also, we’re more about Twilight Zone Tower of Terror than the Star Wars rides.
These trends may not sound like much, but let’s be realistic. Only a tiny percentage of fans would pick those rides and restaurants as their favorites.
Crowd sizes suggest that fewer people Rope Drop or stay until closing. Conversely, parks are most crowded during the afternoon when we’re leaving.
Also, the early morning lines at Splash Mountain prove that many people love getting drenched at the start of the park day.
So, you can already see how individual itineraries matter. Disney Genie would suggest rides to us that it wouldn’t offer to most people.
Conversely, you’d be at Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Avatar Flight of Passage while we’re at Tower of Terror and Na’vi River Journey.
The thing about gen z is that it’s grown up in an era of customization. With Disney Genie, a virtual assistant will provide that to all guests.
For years, Disney has tried to create a Tomorrowland that feels like it’s a few years in the future. Disney Genie is that app, only we’re getting it now.
Feature Image: Disney