Disney Genie+, the paid access to shorter queues for Walt Disney World attractions, decided this Sunday would be a personal day. Disney Genie+ has not worked this morning, causing Walt Disney World to issue refunds.
With the holiday weekend, Disney Genie+ reached its highest price in many months. Some options to purchase cost $29 for the day. This higher price connects to the busier holiday weekend. The variable pricing looked like this:
- Park Hopper version $29
- Magic Kingdom $29
- Epcot $18
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios $22
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom $18.
Disney Genie+ Chaos Ensues
After guests paid prices for the Genie+ privileges, things turned out poorly. Walt Disney World guests paying these higher prices faced profound issues within the app. This morning involved significant reports of the system not working. Guests could purchase Genie+. Then, the problems start.
Many guests reported having no ability to select an attraction’s lightning lane. In other words, guests could buy the queue-reducing feature but not be able to use it at all. The errors seen by guests range from a slow loading screen saying, “Adding a few more magical touches,” or just a continual spinning wheel on their screen. Guests were urged to refresh their screens and try again. This led to continual unsuccessful attempts to select the Genie+ lightning lanes they wanted.
The Walt Disney World app is having major issues this morning. In an in-app message, Disney says: “At this time, new selections, purchases or modifications to Disney Genie+ service features are temporarily unavailable.” pic.twitter.com/Xgtm3oK2wi
— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) October 8, 2023
After the theme parks opened, guests saw an error message on the My Disney Experience mobile app that Disney Genie+ service features were temporarily unavailable. Even though Walt Disney World avoids extending refunds for short outages, refunds are being given in the theme park today.
No official statement by Walt Disney World has been given at the time of writing. Of course, if you dislike the lightning lane system, today might be a great day to visit some of the Walt Disney World theme parks. Still, you would be visiting on a higher crowd-level day, so this technical issue might not help with that.
We have no information if the Disney Genie+ system will be back up and running tomorrow. We have a few reports of guests being able to use Genie+ plus so that is a good sign for the system. However, based on the revenue generated by Walt Disney World with Genie+, we expect it to function appropriately soon.
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