Bad Genie+ Recommendations from Optimize

When people purchase Genie+ (one of Disney's for-pay ways to access shorter lines), they want to use it, and folks can be surprised when the "Optimize" feature of our Personalized Touring Plan software does not use it as much as possible.

Why does that happen?

First, note that "optimize" minimizes total wait times over the course of your entire plan. Such a plan does not necessarily make as much use as possible of Genie+, and experiencing something via Genie+ during times of day when standby waits are short does not necessarily make sense. Part of the power of our software is that it can reveal "non-intuitive" time-saving solutions. That fact that you're in a Lightning Lane queue from Genie+ for one ride means that you're not in the standby queue for another ride, and that other ride might have shorter wait times relative to other parts of the day. Our software knows this and makes choices to minimize total wait times over the course of your plan.

Note that a time-efficient plan with the lowest total wait time is not necessarily the best plan for you. Some people take pleasure in using Genie+, and others always want to experience their favorite attraction first thing in the morning. And some people might prefer one 40-minute wait and two 5-minute waits over three 15-minute waits, even if the former has less total wait time. That's okay, even if it's less efficient. You can arrange your own attraction order and use the "Evaluate" option to see how we predict your wait times will work out.

Next, some Lightning Lane distribution times via Genie+ advance very quickly. For example, on some dates our software may assume that you cannot get a useful Slinky Dog because the return times advance by hours in a matter of seconds after 7:00 a.m. If you get an early-in-the-day return time for Slinky Dog, by all means use it, but our software won't expect that. (You can, however, adjust your plan same-day while in the park via our Lines app. You can add any return times that you get, and our software will optimize around that.)

Finally, our software has some weaknesses. Part of it is that our support for Genie+ is new. Our forecasts will get better over time. The other piece is that our software only supports getting a return time in between steps. This means that the software won't allow you to retrieve a return time if you happen to be in line for another attraction or watching a show, even though it's possible for you to do that, and even that that might be a time-saving move. This can exclude some good uses of Genie+. We hope to modify our software in the future to handle this situation better.