I am highly sceptical of the new Genie service that is marketed as making it easier to plan your day. So you input all the rides and experiences you want to cover and the system works out a plan for you to ‘maximise your day’.
I imagine it will be designed in such a way that you will be guided through the attractions in an order that means purchasing Lightning Lane access is necessary in order to get everything done.
For example if you arrive at Magic Kingdom for opening and have Space Mountain on your list in the Genie app, I’d be surprised if it told you to go there first when the standby line is quiet. Instead it will guide you elsewhere bringing you to Space Mountain a couple of hours later before helpfully suggesting that you drop another $40 on queue jump passes.
In terms of not having to book Fastpasses 60 days out, I do understand that some people didn’t like this. However at least you knew you had secured the headline attractions you wanted before travelling thousands of miles to the parks and you only had to do this once for your trip. Under the new system it’s a daily race to book lightning lane (and you have to pay per ride for all those major attractions such as 7DMT, TOT etc that were worth booking a Fastpass for).
Also, it’s seems so bloomin complicated. Not sure how this makes it ‘easier’ as Disney are marketing it as.
Ah OK. So DLP is more like regular Merlin Fastrack whereas this is more like Universal Express, for instance, where you pay a set price for access to every ride (although you can only reserve one at once)?
Yes, except for the big caveat is that not all rides are covered. The headline stuff such as Space Mountain, 7DMT etc will not be included in the regular Genie+ Lightning Lane access and you will need to buy a one off pass per ride (prices will vary by day and depending on how busy the park is), so effectively making it the same as a Merlin one shot fastrack.